European stocks slid further away from a three-month high, trimming a second weekly advance, as carmakers led declines.
Daimler AG tumbled 5.1 percent after its quarterly operating profit fell. Volkswagen AG lost 1.3 percent, paring a drop of as much as 6.1 percent, after more than doubling the provisions toward payments in its cheating scandal. PSA Peugeot Citroen fell 1.7 percent after government fraud investigators searched the group’s premises in France as part of a probe into vehicle emissions.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index lost 0.3 percent at the close of trading, paring an earlier drop of as much as 0.8 percent.
Photo: AFP
Traders sent the benchmark lower yesterday for the first time in four sessions as they remained unconvinced by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) stimulus program even after ECB President Mario Draghi urged critics to give it time to work.
“What we’re seeing today is a bit of profit-taking on the gains we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks,” London-based CMC Markets PLC market analyst Michael Hewson said. “I’m not convinced we will see it degenerate into a much deeper selloff in the short to medium term.”
Advances in commodity and energy producers have led a rally in European equities in the past two months. The STOXX 600 surged 16 percent from a February low to its highest level since Jan. 6 on Wednesday. It is up 1.7 percent this week.
The gains have come even as analysts slashed their profit estimates for the region’s companies. They now predict an earnings decline this year for STOXX 600 firms, reversing calls for growth at the start of the year.
Among shares moving on financial results, Kering SA slid 5.4 percent after the Gucci owner reported first-quarter revenue that trailed analysts’ estimates. Volvo AB rose 4.9 percent on better-than-estimated earnings.
Zodiac Aerospace SA jumped 11 percent after people familiar with the matter said Safran SA is considering an offer for it. Safran lost 3 percent.
The slide in automakers dragged the DAX Index down 0.7 percent, after the German benchmark came within 1 percent of entering a bull market yesterday.
The UK’s FTSE 100 Index fell 1.1 percent, the worst performer in Europe.
Greece’s ASE Index rose the most, up 1.2 percent, after its creditors signaled a deal on the country’s next bailout installment is in sight.
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