European stocks advanced for a fifth day on Friday, extending a seven-year high, as data showed employers in the US added more jobs last month than forecast.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent to 373.31 at the close of trading, after earlier dropping as much as 0.4 percent. The gauge posted a weekly gain of 1.7 percent. The 257,000 advance in US payrolls beat analyst predictions for 228,000, capping the greatest three-month jobs gain in 17 years, a US Department of Labor report said.
“European market participants are cheering this very good number,” London-based Market Securities chief European strategist Stephane Ekolo wrote in an e-mail. “The US economy remains strong, which bodes well for European stocks, in the sense that the euro will weaken against the dollar, creating support for EU exporters.”
Stocks pared some gains as Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the bloc would not grant Greece’s request for a short-term financing agreement to keep the country afloat while it renegotiates the terms of its financial support. Greece’s ASE Index lost 2 percent, trimming its best weekly increase since November last year.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to stick to his anti-bailout pledges as he prepared for a detailed policy speech today. A diplomatic push this week seeking support for his plans met with a rebuff from Germany, and the European Central Bank shut off a key avenue for Greek banks’ funding.
The VSTOXX Index, a gauge of volatility on the Euro STOXX 50 Index, slipped 1.9 percent, for a fifth consecutive decline, its longest losing streak since October last year.
Among companies moving on corporate news, Statoil ASA rose 2.2 percent after Norway’s largest energy company deepened cost cuts and halted dividend growth.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC advanced 1.1 percent to its highest price since July last year. The drugmaker reported positive results from a trial combining two cancer drugs it is selling to Novartis AG, an outcome that triggers a US$1.5 billion payment from the Swiss company.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure