European shares slipped from all-time highs on Friday, as investor sentiment was dulled by underwhelming corporate earnings reports and the rising death toll from the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.
The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.2 percent, snapping a four-day winning streak, as the number of deaths from the outbreak climbed to 636 and several more companies suspended operations in China.
“We are probably going to see companies caution that sales have been hit as people are not going out to shops to buy and that is going to ripple through,” CMC Markets market analyst David Madden said.
British fashion brand Burberry Group PLC fell 1.8 percent after flagging a slide in demand from China and Hong Kong due to the outbreak.
China-exposed sectors, such as basic materials, luxury and auto stocks, which have seesawed over the past two weeks on virus fears, were the biggest decliners on the day.
Sentiment this week had so far been buoyed by a spate of strong earnings updates and China’s attempts to limit the economic fallout of the outbreak, helping the main index recover from a 3 percent slump last week.
Despite Friday’s declines, the STOXX 600 posted its best week since December 2016 with a 3.3 percent increase.
Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group AG slumped 3.6 percent on Friday after its chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam stepped down following a spying scandal.
Miner Norsk Hydro ASA tumbled 10 percent after missing quarterly profit estimates, while Belgian materials and recycling group Umicore SA fell after an RBC downgrade to “hold.”
Economic data from the bloc this week had raised hopes that a slowdown might be bottoming out, but latest numbers showed German industrial output registered its biggest drop in more than a decade in December last year.
“The data has raised the risk that next week’s GDP data could bring back the R-word for the German economy,” said Carsten Brzeski, Germany chief economist at ING, referring to fears of a looming recession.
Cosmetics maker L’Oreal SA and fertilizer maker Yara International ASA rose 6.7 percent and 4.9 percent respectively after posting better-than-expected quarterly profits.
Technology firm Ericsson AB topped the pan-regional index after majority owner Cevian Capital said a US interest in buying a stake would be positive, following comments from the US Attorney General on Thursday that the country should consider taking a “controlling stake” in the company.
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
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