A flare-up in tensions in Ukraine on Friday threatened to derail the climb made by US stock markets this week, but traders ultimately dismissed geopolitical concerns to deliver another week of gains on Wall Street.
The prospects of fresh US and European involvement in Iraq’s civil conflict, coupled with Ukraine’s claim that it destroyed Russian armored vehicles inside its territory late on Thursday, failed to dampen buying. Nor did dismal second-quarter growth reports from Japan and the eurozone that underscored the global economy’s continued struggle.
Stocks finished a volatile Friday session mixed, but the week’s gains were solid. The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent to close on 1,955.06, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.8 percent to 16,662.91 and the NASDAQ Composite outperformed both indices with a gain of 2.2 percent to end at 4,464.93.
The end of a modestly good second-quarter earnings season helped spur gains. Biotech and chipmakers led the climbs higher for the week, while industrials generally did well.
Also keeping investors focused on equities was the continued flow of data showing little inflationary pressure that would force the US Federal Reserve to push up interest rates earlier than expected — the second half of next year.
The stronger US economy has brought out more calls from inflation hawks for Fed Chair Janet Yellen to speed up the timetable, but the most recent data showing prices are still well in check and consumer spending flat suggest that the US central bank has much more time to continue supporting the economy with its ultra-low benchmark rate.
Friday’s data showed a slowdown in the producer price index to a 1.7 percent annual pace.
Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc poor second quarter and diminished outlook has analysts glued to August-September back-to-school sales data to understand if that was a blip or will remain an ongoing challenge to growth.
The week saw Berkshire Hathaway set a new landmark for US markets: The Warren Buffett investment house’s A shares passed US$200,000 for the first time, more than 100 times the value of the second highest-priced shares. It took less than eight years to double from US$100,000 — with the 2008 market crash in between.
The coming week will be light on economic data and focus on the state of the housing market.
Investors will be looking to what is said on the Fed’s annual economic policy symposium from Thursday to Saturday next week.
There, Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi are expected to update their views on the state of growth and monetary policy trajectory.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained