European stocks fell, trimming their fourth straight weekly advance, as a surge in US unemployment to a 25-year high damped optimism that the worst of the global recession is over.
Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG slid more than 1.8 percent as a report showed employers in America cut 663,000 jobs last month.
Novo Nordisk AS tumbled 14 percent after the drugmaker’s experimental diabetes shot received a split recommendation from a US advisory panel. Renault SA and Daimler AG led automakers higher as Credit Suisse upgraded the industry to “overweight.”
“We have a very awful, deep recession,” Jan Loeys, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s global head of market strategy, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in London.
“At some point we will be turning around, but the question is: Is it this year or next year?” Loeys said.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index slid 1 percent to 186.17. The measure posted its fourth week of gains, the longest streak since the global bear market that wiped out US$37 trillion of equity value began in October 2007.
The benchmark index for European stocks has climbed 18 percent since March 9 as the biggest US banks said they made money in the first two months of this year and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled plans to finance as much as US$1 trillion in purchases of banks’ distressed assets.
National benchmark indexes retreated in 14 of the 18 western European markets. France’s CAC 40 lost 1.1 percent and Germany’s DAX added 0.1 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 sank 2.3 percent as Tesco PLC retreated.
Financial shares rallied this week as the US Financial Accounting Standards Board agreed to relax fair-value, or mark-to-market, accounting that requires banks to revalue assets each quarter to reflect market prices. Writedowns and credit-related losses at financial institutions have swelled to US$1.29 trillion since the start of 2007.
“You still want to be quite cautious,” said Paul Kavanagh, a partner at Killik & Co in London, which has about US$2.9 billion in assets under management.
“It’s far too early to start thinking about a recovery in the economy,” he said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a