European shares closed higher on Friday after hitting one-month highs as investor appetite for assets considered risky remained firm, despite caution over trade and ahead of earnings season.
The pan-European STOXX 600 ended 0.1 percent higher on its fourth straight day in the black — its longest winning streak since November.
However, Frankfurt, Paris and London all ended in negative territory as enthusiasm over China’s trade talks with the US waned without hard evidence about what was agreed.
Worries about slowing economic growth in China also lingered, while Wall Street’s gains from a rally on Thursday faltered as corporate results season starts in earnest next week.
“The lack of additional detail in relation to the update [on US-China trade talks] has encouraged some dealers to trim their positions ahead of the weekend,” said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
China-sensitive autos and parts suppliers led the falls, down 1 percent.
Valeo Group dropped 6.4 percent, the biggest faller on France’s CAC 40, while Continental AG and Volkswagen AG were among the biggest DAX decliners.
Still in the first full trading week of this year, the STOXX 600 gained 1.7 percent as investors regained their appetite for risk boosted by dovish comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Equity funds drew inflows of US$6.2 billion, the biggest in 11 weeks, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.
Britain’s FTSE 100 erased earlier gains as sterling bounced amid growing expectations that the government might delay its departure from the EU beyond March 29.
Focus remained on British Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to get her Brexit deal through parliament, with a crucial vote due on Tuesday.
A drastic about-turn in crude prices also weighed on heavyweight oil stocks.
In the healthcare sector, downgrades by Jefferies Group LLC hit UDG Healthcare PLC and Orion Oyj, which were the worst individual performers with falls of 7.7 percent 7.4 percent respectively.
French utilities took a hit after Societe Generale SA downgraded ratings on Suez SA and Veolia Environnement SA, citing doubts about the global growth outlook. The stocks were down 2.8 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.
The UK’s housebuilders were stand-out gainers on the day after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded its view on the sector, saying “it seems at least possible, or even probably, that some sort of Brexit resolution is within sight and therefore the UK housebuilding sector may see some relief.”
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained