US stocks pared losses as the US dollar fell, while US Treasuries and gold gained after US employers last month added the fewest jobs in almost six years, bolstering the case for the US Federal Reserve to leave interests rates lower for longer.
Shares of commodity producers extended gains, helping the S&P 500 trim declines. The dollar tumbled the most in six months versus the euro, while investors sought the safest government securities, sending the yield on two-year Treasuries to the steepest drop since September last year and the yield on German 10-year bunds to a record low. The weak greenback sparked a rally in emerging-market assets and commodities.
“Things are never as bad or as good as they seem,” said Michael Arone, the Boston-based chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors’ US intermediary business, which oversees US$2 trillion. “Fed futures are pricing in a decreasing probability for June and stocks probably don’t mind that scenario all that much. We’re moving away from this risk-on, risk-off formula to one that’s more Fed on, Fed off.”
The addition of 38,000 jobs last month was less than the most pessimistic of forecasts in a Bloomberg survey, throwing cold water on equity gains that took the S&P 500 within 1.2 percent of its all-time high.
Smaller employment gains reduce the odds of a more pronounced upturn in economic growth at a time when corporate profits are on a downswing and global markets remain weak. The odds for a Fed rate increase next month fell to 27 percent, down from 55 percent a day earlier.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 2,100.38 at 3:19pm in New York, after dropping as much as 1 percent. The benchmark reversed a weekly retreat, now set for a 0.1 percent advance, the third week of gains.
Utilities and telephone stocks advanced as the prospect for lower rates sent investors searching for shares that have large payout ratios. Raw-material shares also climbed after fluctuating earlier.
Newmont Mining Corp jumped 9 percent for the biggest gain in the S&P 500.
Financial shares trimmed losses to 1.3 percent, after falling as much as 2.4 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc sank at least 1.7 percent. Insurers MetLife Inc and Prudential Financial Inc fell more than 3 percent.
The two-year Treasury note yield fell to 0.78 percent, while 10-year yields dropped 10 basis points to 1.7 percent.
The gap between yields on five and 30-year debt, a measure of the yield curve, steepened by the most since March.
“This was quite shocking — it’s way under expectations,” said Christopher Sullivan, who oversees US$2.3 billion as chief investment officer at United Nations Federal Credit Union in New York.
The Fed “will postpone a nearby rate hike for sure — maybe they’ll be forced to look beyond the summer,” Sullivan added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six