European stocks had the biggest weekly decline in four months after oil rebounded and US reports added to concern the world’s largest economy is stalling.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the biggest maker of luxury cars, and Michelin & Cie paced a retreat among automotive companies as May car sales in the US and Germany fell and crude climbed above US$134 a barrel. Bradford & Bingley Plc, the UK’s largest lender to landlords, led banks lower after saying it plans to sell shares at a discount.
Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index tumbled 3.7 percent to 310.29, the steepest drop since the week ended on Feb. 8. The measure is down 15 percent this year as record energy prices, inflation and credit-market losses approaching US$400 billion have weighed on stocks.
“Oil heading for the sky is bad news for autos and airlines,” said Simon Carter, who manages US$3 billion at Aegon Asset Management in Edinburgh. “We need to see demand destruction to put a cap on the price of crude.”
The price of oil rose almost 10 percent in the past two days as demand grew for a hedge against a weakening dollar and Morgan Stanley said prices may reach US$150 within a month because of accelerating Asian consumption amid declining inventories.
European stocks extended declines today after US unemployment last month jumped 5.5 percent, the most since 1986. Economists predicted the jobless rate would rise to 5.1 percent from 5 percent in April, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Average hourly wages gained 0.3 percent from the previous month, more than the 0.2 percent increase predicted by economists.
“What really shocked the market was the rate as well as the average hourly earnings,” Christoph Schmidt, an analyst at Fleischhacker AG in Frankfurt, told Bloomberg Television on Friday.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England left their benchmark interest rates unchanged on Friday. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said officials may raise interest rates next month to combat the fastest inflation in 16 years, sparking a surge in the euro and pushing bond yields to the highest level since 2001.
National benchmarks declined in all 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX Index fell 4.1 percent, while France’s CAC 40 retreated 4.4 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 2.4 percent. The Stoxx 50 slipped 4.2 percent and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the euro region, lost 4.8 percent.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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