European stocks declined for the first week in three as concern about Greece’s budget deficit offset better-than-expected results from companies including Safran SA and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.
Raiffeisen International Bank Holding AG plunged 17 percent on doubts about the impact of a possible merger with its majority shareholder. Renewable Energy Corp ASA fell 15 percent on concern about a potential share sale. Safran increased 15 percent. Royal Bank of Scotland rose 9.1 percent. Carlsberg A/S climbed 8.7 percent after forecasting increased profitability.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index dropped 1.8 percent to 245.80 this week, snapping two weeks of gains. The benchmark gauge has retreated 5.6 percent from this year’s high on Jan. 19 as concern mounted over budget deficits in Greece, Spain and Portugal, and as China moved to restrict lending and stop its economy from overheating. The measure has still rallied 56 percent since March last year.
National benchmark indexes fell in all 18 western European markets except Iceland, Finland and Switzerland. Germany’s DAX fell 2.2 percent and France’s CAC 40 slid 1.6 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 0.1 percent.
Automobile stocks fell the most among the industry groups in the STOXX 600, losing 4.1 percent. The European auto industry “cannot count on a quick recovery” in demand, even as it reaches a “turning point” this year, Dieter Zetsche, chief executive officer of Daimler AG and president of the ACEA European auto manufacturers’ association, said on Tuesday.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS