European stocks rebounded from a one-month low in the past week as better-than-expected earnings at companies from Swiss Reinsurance Co to Delhaize Group SA fed investors’ expectations that a seven-month rally will go on.
Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest reinsurer, and Delhaize, the owner of Food Lion supermarkets, both gained more than 7 percent. BNP Paribas also rose after beating analysts’ estimates, while Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC tumbled 12 percent after it ceded greater control to the government.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index rose 1.7 percent to 241.06 this week, climbing from the lowest level since Oct. 5 at the end of last week and posting its first gain in three weeks. The Euro STOXX 50, a measure for the largest companies in the euro zone, climbed 1.9 percent.
A global rally in equities lost pace last month on concern the rebound has gone too far relative to the prospects for economic growth. The STOXX 600 is still up 53 percent since March 9 even after dropping 2.3 percent last month.
“For the management teams that have a good track record of managing their businesses tightly and with a strong business franchise, it will be an environment in which decent earnings and cash flow growth will be seen,” said Mark Lovett, chief investment officer for European equities at RCM Ltd in London. “Under these conditions equities can deliver good capital returns.”
National benchmark indexes advanced in all major western European markets this week except Sweden. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 2 percent and France’s CAC 40 surged 2.8 percent. Germany’s DAX added 1.4 percent as Adidas AG increased.
Indexes fluctuated in the week’s last session as unemployment in the US soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent last month and employers cut more jobs than forecast.
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