European stocks posted their biggest weekly loss in two months amid concern that the US Federal Reserve would reduce the pace of its monthly bond purchases next month.
Heineken NV fell 5.2 percent after the world’s third-largest brewer said that profit before some items would not grow this year. Deutsche Wohnen AG sank after it offered to buy Berlin’s biggest publicly traded residential landlord in an all- share transaction.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index slid 0.5 percent to 304.71 this week. The gauge dropped 1.9 percent in the three days through Wednesday, as the MSCI Emerging Markets Index plunged 3.5 percent and speculation mounted that the minutes from the Fed’s last meeting would give more details of how the central bank would slow its quantitative-easing program.
The equity benchmark is still up 11 percent from this year’s low on June 24, as the European Central Bank said that its interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time.
“The weakness in the first three days really was led by emerging markets,” said David Moss, who helps manage US$144 billion as director of European equities at F&C Investments in London. “European markets have been pretty strong of late and the weakness we saw in the emerging markets has been used as a bit of an excuse for profit-taking.”
The Fed published the minutes from its July 30 to 31 meeting on Wednesday. They showed that almost all the participants agreed with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s plan to start reducing its US$85 billion monthly bond purchases if the economy continues to improve in line with forecasts.
Policymakers will probably decide to buy fewer assets next month, according to 65 percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg on Aug. 9 to 13. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) holds its next two-day meeting on Sept. 17 and 18.
“The FOMC minutes didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, but certainly the advent of tapering, whenever that may be, is at the front of people’s minds,” Moss said.
In Europe, a measure of German manufacturing compiled by Markit Economics climbed to 52 this month from 50.7 last month. The median economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey had called for a reading of 51.1. The company’s gauge of services advanced to 52.4, beating the median estimate of 51.7. Readings greater than 50 mean that activity increased.
National benchmark indices declined in 13 of the 18 Western-European markets this week. The UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent and France’s CAC 40 lost 1.3 percent. Germany’s DAX Index added 0.3 percent.
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