European stocks fell this month, sending the Dow Jones Stoxx 50 Index to its biggest January drop ever. Lloyds TSB Group Plc and Nokia Oyj were among the worst performers, driven lower on concern a possible US-led attack on Iraq may slow economic and profit growth.
"The war is hanging over the market," said Ludger Vossenberg, who helps manage about 8 billion euros (US$8.7 billion) at SEB Invest GmbH in Frankfurt. "That is the poison that is driving down" stocks.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 50 Index added 0.2 percent to 2,237.74 as of 7:28pm in London, cutting its slump this month to 7.1 percent. The Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.3 percent to 189, trimming this year's slide to 6.3 percent. Both indexes posted their worst January since calculations began in 1987.
Benchmarks rose in 11 of Western Europe's 17 markets, led by the Belgian Bel20 Index's 2.6 percent climb. Germany's DAX Index gained 1.9 percent, France's CAC 40 Index added 0.8 percent, and the UK FTSE 100 index dropped 0.3 percent. Eleven Stoxx 600 shares declined for every 10 that advanced.
Lloyds TSB, Britain's fifth-largest bank, dropped 1.6 percent to 379 pence. Nokia, the world's largest mobile-phone maker, fell 5.8 percent to 13.08 euros. Lloyds TSB shed 15 percent in January and Nokia slid 14 percent, among the Stoxx 50's 10 biggest losses.
Equities probably won't recover until ``the current risk factors are removed,'' said Bob Parker, deputy chairman of Credit Suisse Asset Management, which has US$303 billion under management.
He's concerned that crude oil above US$30 a barrel will slow profit growth and the dollar's decline to near a 3 1/2-year low against the euro will erode exporters' sales.
The Stoxx 50 rebounded during the afternoon from a loss of as much as 2.4 percent, lifted by utility shares as E.ON AG reached a last-minute settlement that cleared the way for its takeover of Ruhrgas AG and Suez SA said sales rose.
Axa SA dropped as Moody's Investors Service said it's concerned about the effect of slumping share prices on the insurer's profitability.
E.ON, Europe's second-largest utility, rose 4.5 percent to 42.25 euros. The company persuaded nine opponents to drop their legal appeals to its 10.7 billion-euro (US$11.6 billion) purchase of Germany's biggest natural-gas distributor, ending the country's biggest antitrust battle since World War II.
Tendered shares of Degussa AG, the world's biggest specialty-chemical maker, gained 8.8 percent to 37.80 euros. The stock, which has jumped 36 percent since Wednesday's close, was placed in a special pool after owners in June accepted coal miner RAG AG's offer to buy the company.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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