Declines in auto-related shares and commodity producers on Friday dragged European stocks lower as a busy earnings week drew to a close.
The STOXX Europe 600 fell 1 percent at the close.
The gauge fell 0.5 percent in the past five days, capping its second straight weekly decline.
Renault SA fell 5.1 percent on Friday, pulling down automakers, after its profit missed estimates and the company said price pressures are rising in some markets. Miners snapped a three-day advance.
Among shares moving on corporate results, L’Oreal SA fell 2.8 percent after reporting second-quarter sales that missed estimates.
Credit Suisse Group AG gained 3.1 percent after the lender posted second-quarter profit that beat estimates.
Adidas AG jumped 4.1 percent after the company raised its revenue and profit forecasts, helped by strong sportswear sales and the disposal of its CCM hockey business.
Fund managers poured US$3.3 billion in European equity funds in the week ended Wednesday, the largest inflow in 11 weeks, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch note citing EPFR Global data.
Imperial Brands PLC and British American Tobacco PLC fell at least 3.8 percent on the news that the US Food and Drug Administration plans to explore regulating the level of nicotine in conventional cigarettes.
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