European stocks posted the biggest weekly drop since February on concern that Greece’s debt crisis will spread across the region.
Credit Agricole SA paced declines in bank shares. Rio Tinto Group led mining shares lower as copper prices retreated. Nobel Biocare Holding AG, the world’s largest maker of tooth implants, fell after first-quarter sales missed analyst estimates. BP PLC dropped on concern about the costs of containing a worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The STOXX Europe 600 lost 2.8 percent to 259.91 for a third weekly decline.
The benchmark gauge slipped 1.4 percent last month. Stocks fell as Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of Greece, Portugal and Spain and investors speculated Greece’s credit troubles would spread further.
The declines have trimmed this year’s gain to 2.4 percent.
“What’s weighed on the market is the downgrade of Greece, renewing uncertainty,” said Chicuong Dang, an analyst at KBL Richelieu Gestion in Paris, which oversees about US$4.5 billion. “Greece is in an urgent situation. The downgrades of peripheral countries also weighed on stocks. The market is asking who will be next.”
Greece’s benchmark index erased declines as European Commission President Jose Barroso on Friday said he is confident a rescue package for Greece will be completed “in days,” easing investor concern that the nation may default.
National benchmark indexes fell in 15 out of the 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX slid 2 percent and France’s CAC 40 tumbled 3.4 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 3 percent.
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
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
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
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