European stocks fell for a fifth straight day on Friday sending the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index to the lowest level in two months, as concern deepened the global economic slump will erode earnings.
Prudential Plc, the second-largest life-insurance company in the UK, retreated 8.2 percent amid speculation insurers may run short of funds. Infineon Technologies AG, Europe’s second-biggest semiconductor maker, sank 4.9 percent as its Qimonda unit filed for insolvency. Ubisoft Entertainment SA slumped 19 percent after revising its sales forecast. BHP Billiton Ltd climbed 2 percent, leading a rebound in raw-material shares, as metals rallied.
The STOXX 600 dropped 0.4 percent to 182.20 as of 4:30pm in London, the lowest since Nov. 21. Disappointing earnings from Nokia Oyj to Microsoft Corp and concern banks may need to raise more capital to shore up their balance sheets has sent the measure to its second week of losses.
“Doom and gloom is everywhere,” said Andy Brough, a London-based fund manager at Schroder Investment Management, which has about US$12.7 billion under management.
“It’s far harder for companies to come out saying they have actually noticed something improving,” he told Bloomberg Television.
The UK economy shrank more than economists forecast during the fourth quarter in the biggest contraction since 1980. GDP fell 1.5 percent from the previous quarter.
National benchmark indexes fell in 12 of 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX dropped 0.8 percent. France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.7 percent as Axa SA declined. The UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.4 percent, led lower by Legal & General Group Plc.
Dividends in Europe could fall 10 percent last year and 3 percent this year, UBS AG equity strategists led by Nick Nelson wrote in note on Friday. US companies are reducing dividends at the fastest rate in half a century, squeezing investors who depend on the payouts more than ever to boost returns, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is forcing companies to hoard cash after earnings before one-time costs dropped 38 percent last year, the most since 2001, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
Analysts have cut estimates for company earnings worldwide by US$1 trillion since October, suggesting profits may tumble as much as 45 percent this year amid the global recession, Societe Generale SA’s Andrew Lapthorne wrote in a note on Friday.
Earnings at companies in the Stoxx 600 would fall 1.4 percent on average this year following a 17 percent slump last year, Bloomberg estimates showed.
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