European stocks have rallied to a two-month high after China increased stimulus, adding to optimism that central banks around the world will do what is needed to support the global economy.
Equities posted the biggest two-day gain since July after also getting a boost from European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi, who hinted at additional stimulus measures on Friday. The STOXX Europe 600 Index added 2 percent at the close of trading, extending its rally after the People’s Bank of China cut its benchmark lending rate and reserve requirements for banks.
“That’s giving a nice boost to the market,” said Keith Bowman, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown PLC in London. “Clearly, China has been a concern for investors from some time now, and there has been speculation that the Chinese might inject some further stimulus. That’s what we’ve seen today.”
The STOXX 600 closed at its highest level since Aug. 19, with all industry groups rising. It is up for a third week, the longest stretch since March. BMW AG and Volkswagen AG, which get more than three-quarters of their revenue outside Germany, rose more than 3.2 percent as exporters were among the best performers. The DAX posted the best gain among western European markets, up 2.9 percent.
“The hope that cheap money is here to stay for longer, together with stronger earnings is helping stocks,” Frankfurt-based Quoniam Asset Management GmbH associate director for equities trading Soeren Steinert said.
His firm manages more than 25 billion euros (US$28 billion).
“There were many fears in the summer and none of them came true so people are buying again because they had closed their positions,” Steinert said.
Among stocks active on corporate news, Kering SA jumped 11 percent as its revenue growth beat estimates. Vinci SA gained 2.3 percent after Europe’s biggest builder forecast better-than-projected annual sales.
Gjensidige Forsikring ASA surged 12 percent after the Norwegian insurer said diminishing uncertainty over capital requirements could lead to an extraordinary dividend.
Anglo American PLC gained 2.2 percent after people familiar with the matter said it is considering a sale of its niobium and phosphate business in Brazil in a deal that may fetch about US$1 billion. Cable & Wireless Communications PLC climbed 6.6 percent after confirming it is in talks for a takeover bid by Liberty Global PLC. The shares surged 21 percent in final trading settlement on Friday after Dow Jones reported the discussions.
Ericsson AB fell 6 percent after the network-equipment maker’s profitability missed projections. AP Moeller-Maersk lost 5.2 percent after cutting its full-year earnings forecast. TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC slid 4.4 percent after saying a data hack might have compromised customers’ credit card details.
The STOXX 600 has rallied 8.5 percent in October, on track for its best month since 2009. It has clawed back more than half the losses from a rout that began in August and continued through Sept. 29, when the gauge fell to its lowest level since January.
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