European stocks climbed this week as companies from Anheuser-Busch InBev NV to Bayer AG posted quarterly earnings that beat estimates and as the European Central Bank (ECB) said interest rates will remain low.
AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, jumped 11 percent, leading food-and-beverage stocks higher. Bayer paced gains among chemical makers as it surged 7 percent. Alcatel-Lucent SA soared 17 percent after quarterly profit exceeded projections and K+S AG posted its biggest weekly drop in more than 14 years as OAO Uralkali forecast that potash prices will plummet.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index advanced 1.8 percent to 304.15 this week. The equity benchmark rose every day this week, its longest winning streak since April. That pushed its valuation to 13.8 times estimated earnings, the highest since December 2009. More than 140 STOXX 600-listed companies reported earnings this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
National benchmark indices rose in all 18 western European markets this week. The UK’s FTSE 100 advanced 1.4 percent, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.9 percent and Germany’s DAX Index added 2 percent.
“Investors have a far more positive outlook on European equities now than before as they are hoping the economy will oblige and show an improvement next year,” Hermes Sourcecap Ltd chief executive Andrew Parry said in a telephone interview. “Expectations for profit have already fallen so much that if a company is posting slightly better earnings on depressed estimates, that’s a welcome relief.”
Analysts have lowered their profit forecasts for companies listed on the STOXX 600 since the beginning of this year. Estimates have fallen 8.3 percent to 22.09 euros per share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday said interest rates in the eurozone will remain low for an extended period of time.
He also said there are indications that the combined economy of the currency bloc is stabilizing. The ECB and the Bank of England left their benchmark interest rates unchanged at 0.5 percent, as forecast in Bloomberg surveys.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day