European stocks fell this week, as a slump in commodities shares offset a record one-day rally by the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index after central banks and regulators stepped in to shore up financial markets.
The benchmark index was headed for its steepest weekly retreat since July 2002, before financial shares on Friday rallied the most in at least 17 years after the US government moved to cleanse banks of troubled assets and international regulators banned investors from betting the value of banking stocks will fall.
“I can’t recall ever seeing a roller-coaster market like this before,” said Carsten Klude, an investment strategist at M.M. Warburg & Co in Hamburg, which oversees the equivalent of US$25 billion. “The whole financial system in the US has gotten out of joint this week.”
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index fell 0.8 percent this week even after the 8.3 percent rally on Friday, the biggest since data for the index begins in 1987. The index had slumped 8.4 percent between Sept. 12 and Thursday. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index posted a record advance on Friday and Russia’s RTS Index jumped 22 percent after a two-day suspension and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s pledge of US$20 billion to prop up the market.
National benchmark indexes declined in 13 of the 18 western European markets. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 2 percent, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.7 percent.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
RSS