European stocks fell this week, sending the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index to its worst December start, after reports showed manufacturing shrank around the world and US companies cut jobs at the fastest pace in 34 years.
StatoilHydro ASA tumbled 18 percent and Xstrata PLC lost 38 percent as concern the global economic slump is deepening sent oil below US$42 a barrel and copper to the lowest level since May 2005. ABB Ltd, the largest builder of electricity grids, dropped 12 percent after factory indexes in Europe, Russia, China and South Africa showed record contractions. Infineon Technologies AG, Europe’s second-largest chipmaker, plunged the most in the STOXX 600 on a forecast that revenue will decline.
The STOXX 600 retreated 8 percent this week to 189.84, bringing its decline this year to 48 percent. The index erased more than half of a 13 percent rally last week spurred by speculation government stimulus packages and interest-rate cuts would cushion economies from the financial crisis.
“Investors are being blown around in the wind,” Roger Nightingale, who helps oversee about US$1.1 billion as a London-based strategist at Pointon York Ltd, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “The only thing that has been consistent is the economic data, and that is horrible. There isn’t really a single piece of good data out there.”
European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet predicted this week the euro region’s economy will shrink next year. The ECB delivered the biggest interest rate cut in its 10-year history and the Bank of England cut its benchmark rate to the lowest level since 1951. Sweden also lowered borrowing costs by the most since 1992 as central banks around the world struggle to stem job losses and revive credit markets.
The STOXX 600’s drop was the steepest for the first week of December since price data began. The index has posted an average December gain of 2.2 percent during its 21-year history, rising two-thirds of the time, according to monthly data compiled by Bloomberg.
National benchmark indexes fell in all 18 western European markets except Iceland.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique