European stocks rose for the third straight week, reaching their highest level in more than six years, as companies from Meda AB to Valeo SA reported earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates.
Meda had the biggest weekly gain since December 2008 after reporting fourth-quarter net income and revenue that exceeded projections. Valeo gained 11 percent after France’s second-biggest auto-parts maker posted second-half earnings that topped estimates. Vodafone Group PLC rallied 8.3 percent as it completed the disposal of its stake in Verizon Wireless, the biggest sale of the past decade.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.8 percent to 336.09 this week, completing its longest streak of weekly gains since Nov. 15. The gauge closed at the highest level since Jan. 14, 2008.
“The earnings season is in full swing,” said Christoph Riniker, head of strategy research at Julius Baer Group in Zurich. “We expect earnings to grow in Europe, where we have seen lower figures for the last three years. The reason for this is an improving macroeconomic environment.”
The STOXX 600 has gained 4.2 percent this month as the Bank of England (BOE) said Britain is not ready for an increase in interest rates and comments by US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen fueled optimism the US economy can withstand reduced stimulus.
The gauge slid 1.8 percent last month, as investors weighed cuts to the Fed’s bond-buying program, China’s economic slowdown and volatility in emerging markets.
The Fed released the minutes of its Jan. 28-29 meeting this week. At the meeting, the last under former chairman Ben Bernanke, policymakers reduced the bank’s monthly asset purchases to US$65 billion, citing the improved outlook for the labor market.
“Tapering has less influence,” Riniker said. “With the US economy being well on track and investors having been guided towards tapering for some time now, it was not the question anymore of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ and ‘how much’ tapering will happen.”
National benchmark indices climbed in 14 of the 18 Western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 added 2.6 percent, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.9 percent. Germany’s DAX fell 0.1 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
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts