European equities closed little changed, paring a second weekly advance, amid mixed data on the services and manufacturing industries.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.1 percent, trimming a loss of as much as 0.7 percent. Germany’s manufacturing output reached the highest level since early 2014 and a composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for France stood at 50, the threshold that divides expansion from contraction, according to Markit Economics. For the UK, the composite data slumped to its lowest since April 2009 in the wake of the referendum to leave the EU.
“Investors remain concerned on the prospects for economic growth in the eurozone after Brexit,” said Arno Endres, head analyst at Luzerner Kantonalbank in Switzerland. “The confidence level will be a problem longer term because overall central banks are running out of ammunition, and I’m not so confident helicopter money will have the desired effect. Earnings are contributing to the negativity as it’s been a mixed picture.”
While the STOXX 600 closed at a four-week high on Wednesday, it has alternated between daily gains and losses for most of the past week amid corporate earnings and speculation about central bank stimulus.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Thursday said that the bank would consider increasing stimulus when it has a cleared picture of the impact of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
The STOXX 600 ended little changed for the past two days amid thin trading, trimming its weekly advance to 0.7 percent. On Friday, the number of its shares changing hands was almost 40 percent below the 30-day average.
Britain’s FTSE 100 Index of megacaps rose 0.5 percent, reversing a 0.5 percent drop as the pound weakened following the PMI data. The FTSE 250 Index tracking mid-cap firms, more sensitive to the local economy, dropped 0.4 percent.
Miners and energy producers in the STOXX 600 fell amid declines in commodities. Skanska AB lost 4.8 percent as the Swedish construction company lowered its outlook for UK non-residential construction activity. Spain’s Banco de Sabadell SA tumbled 7.5 percent after posting a drop in quarterly profit. Vodafone Group PLC, on the other hand, rose 4.6 percent to its highest price since August last year after reporting service revenue that beat analysts’ estimates.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last