Positive sentiment in Europe’s equity market prevailed for a second day on Friday, on confidence that central bank stimulus would continue to support the global economy.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.6 percent at the close of trading in London and rallied as much as 1 percent. Healthcare, insurer and bank shares climbed the most. The gauge ended the week up 0.1 percent.
NO FED HIKE?
“You may have no rate hike this year from the [US] Federal Reserve and an extension of stimulus in Europe and in Japan, so that’s giving a boost to equities,” said John Plassard, a senior equity sales trader at Mirabaud Securities in Geneva.
“At the same time, crude rebounded, and earnings in the US and Europe were not so bad,” Plassard said.
European equities climbed on Thursday for the first time in four days as quarterly sales at Unilever and Casino Guichard- Perrachon SA beat projections and speculation intensified that the Fed would not raise interest rates this year.
Traders are giving a 56 percent chance that the first increase since 2006 will be in March.
In Europe, final inflation data showed the consumer price index slipped 0.1 percent last month. That is well below the European Central Bank’s target, signaling that more stimulus may be needed.
On Friday, Carrefour SA rallied 6.6 percent after reporting a gain in revenue. Provident Financial PLC climbed 5.4 percent after saying it performed well in the first nine months of the year.
Nestle SA declined 1.9 percent after the world’s largest food company reduced its annual revenue forecast. It reported nine-month sales growth that missed analysts’ projections, hurt by a recall of Maggi noodles and weakness in China.
Remy Cointreau SA dropped 2.4 percent after reporting total organic sales fell.
Hugo Boss AG tumbled 11 percent after cutting its sales and earnings estimates for this year amid deteriorating third-quarter results in China and the US.
ICAP PLC slid 3.6 percent after losing its last buy rating, while Volkswagen AG lost 2.1 percent after a report showed its market share in Europe declined last month.
REBOUND
The STOXX 600 has rebounded after coming within 2 percentage points of a bear market at the end of last month amid growing concern over China’s slowing economy, while Volkswagen’s scandal took its shares to a four-year low.
The developments prompted strategists to cut their estimates for where the STOXX 600 will end the year. They now predict the gauge will finish at 395, down from 422 in July. That is still 8.8 percent above Thursday’s close.
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