European stocks rose for a third straight week after Standard & Poor’s said it was no longer planning an imminent downgrade of Greece’s debt and as the US Federal Reserve repeated a pledge to maintain record-low borrowing costs for an extended period.
UniCredit SpA gained 4.7 percent after Italy’s biggest bank posted earnings that beat estimates. Lloyds Banking Group PLC rallied after saying it may be profitable this year. Arriva PLC jumped 24 percent after the operator of Britain’s longest rail route said it received a takeover approach.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.7 percent to 260.20, a third straight weekly advance. The measure retreated for the first two months of 2010 amid concern that Greece will struggle to rein in Europe’s biggest budget deficit.
“We were strongly caught in uncertainty over Greece, which hasn’t gone away but has brightened up,” said Rolf Biland, Zurich-based chief investment officer at VZ Vermoegenszentrum, which oversees about US$5.7 billion. “Markets are reacting again to the state of the economy and debt concerns have moved to the background. In the short-term we may see the recovery continue.”
Greece had the threat of a cut to its credit rating reduced by S&P, which cited the country’s efforts to narrow a budget deficit that is more than four times the EU’s 3 percent limit. S&P affirmed the nation’s BBB+ rating, removing it from “creditwatch negative,” meaning the company is no longer considering an imminent reduction to the grade.
Officials from the 16 countries using the euro this week worked out a strategy for emergency loans in case Greece’s plan for 4.8 billion euros (US$6.6 billion) in tax increases and wage cuts fails to bring the deficit under control.
Acting Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said the IMF “will probably do part” of Greece’s financing needs. The EU said that “all EU states” are determined to help Greece if needed.
The STOXX 600 has surged 65 percent since March 9 last year as governments and central banks around the world maintained low interest rates and committed more than US$12 trillion to stimulate the economy.
The Fed said low rates were still needed to drive the world’s largest economy. The US central bank also said the labor market is stabilizing and business spending has risen, while inflation remains subdued.
National benchmark indexes rose in 12 out of 18 western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent and Germany’s DAX advanced 0.6 percent, while France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.1 percent. Greece’s ASE Index slid 3.1 percent as the nation’s banks tumbled.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary