Tumbling oil prices and the worst rout in Greek equities since 1987 sent European shares to their biggest weekly slump in more than three years.
Friday’s 2.6 percent plunge in the STOXX Europe 600 Index was the largest in almost two months and extended the week’s losses to 5.8 percent. That was more than double the five-day drop in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
With oil tumbling to a five-year low, European energy companies slumped to their lowest level since April 2009 and commodity producers had their worst week since May 2012.
GREEK COLLAPSE
In Greece, anxiety that voters will kick out leaders committed to the nation’s bailout sent the ASE Index down 20 percent, making it this year’s worst-performing equity market after Russia.
“Investors are taking profit on the eurozone, which has performed quite well since October,” Claudia Panseri, a global equity strategist at SG Private Banking in Paris, said by phone. “With oil furthering its decline, all commodities are under pressure, especially miners.”
After rallying 13 percent from this year’s low to an almost seven-year high on Dec. 5, the STOXX 600 retreated to its lowest level since Oct. 29. The gauge is now up only 0.7 percent for this year.
OPEC said it sees demand for crude next year at the weakest level in 12 years, and the International Energy Agency cut its global demand forecast for the fourth time in five months. That pushed oil down further and energy stocks in Europe sank 9.4 percent this week. Royal Dutch Shell PLC lost 7.7 percent and Total SA fell 9 percent.
MINING FALLS
A gauge of miners tumbled 8.5 percent, reaching its lowest level since July last year. BHP Billiton Ltd lost 10 percent and Rio Tinto Group declined 7.4 percent.
Friday’s drop in Greek shares sent the ASE to its lowest level since July last year. Piraeus Bank SA and National Bank of Greece SA slumped more than 27 percent this week for the biggest declines among STOXX 600 shares.
Greece’s government said it would start the process of electing a new president early. The risk is that Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will have to call a parliamentary election that anti-bailout party Syriza might win, reintroducing the turmoil that threatened the European currency union two years ago. Syriza wants a writedown on Greek debt held by eurozone member states and the European Central Bank.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
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