European shares were little changed on Friday, while France’s stock market dropped in the final trading session before the nation’s presidential election today.
The STOXX Europe 600 closed little changed at 378.12 in London. France’s CAC 40 Index fell 0.4 percent, trimming an earlier drop of as much as 1 percent.
The European regional benchmark saw a weekly drop of 0.6 percent, its steepest since late January.
The latest Opinionway poll showed support for independent candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right contestant Marine Le Pen was stable at 23 percent and 22 percent respectively.
French voters go to the polls in a first-round vote, with Macron and Le Pen the frontrunners to advance to the final election next month.
The murder of a policeman on the Champs-Elysees has forced an early end to campaigning for the leading candidates, with the race wide open, according to polls.
“The possibility of a hard-right Marine Le Pen presidency has worried markets for some time, but another risk scenario to consider is the victory of far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon,” Roubini Global Economics senior economist Lars Lundqvist said. “If either Le Pen or Melenchon make it to the second round, markets would stay on their toes a bit longer.”
Danone SA dropped as much as 2.9 percent after reporting the third consecutive quarterly drop in volume and including its US$10 billion takeover of WhiteWave Foods Co in its organic growth for the year.
European equities are still priced for a slight valuation premium linked to acceleration in global growth momentum and are not reflecting an “obvious political risk discount,” Deutsche Bank AG strategists, including Sebastian Raedler, wrote in a note.
Investors in European lenders are getting cold feet. Bets for swings in lenders’ stocks have jumped and options reached their highest prices since February last year relative to those for euro-area blue chips.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
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