European stock markets forged ahead Friday on welcome news from the US that its economic recovery was finally producing strong jobs growth.
The British FTSE 100 index gained 1.24 percent to 4,465.6 points, the German DAX 30 rose 2.11 percent to 4,007.60 points and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.91 percent to 3,739.91 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares advanced 2.32 percent to 2,885.08 points.
The euro stood at US$1.2127.
In Paris export-oriented firms were among those posting strong gains as the euro fell against the US dollar, brightening hopes for increased sales abroad.
Aerospace group EADS soared 3.41 percent to 18.50 euros and the electronics company Thomson gained 3.10 percent to 15.94 euros.
The price of shares in troubled French computer group Bull surged by 11.9 percent to 0.94 euros when trading in the stock was resumed following the publication of results and the death of its chairman.
The death of Pierre Bonelli was announced on Thursday. Trading in the stock had been suspended for a day early on Wednesday before publication of the results.
Bull reported net 2003 earnings of 4.1 million euros (US$5.1 million) after a loss in 2002 of 548 million euros.
Reuters shares gained 2.25 percent to 409 pence in London despite the company saying it saw its share of the global financial information market decline by two percentage points to 37 percent in terms of revenue last year.
Reuters also reported a unspecified gain in the "premium" market to 28 percent by revenue.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank shares added 2.25 percent to 70.74 euros on a broker upgrade from Smith Barney, while HypoVerinsbank gained 2.62 percent to 16.85 euros.
Lloyds TSB was up 1.5 percent to £4.2225 in London.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index gained 2.35 percent to 350.52, the Swiss SMI was up 1.19 percent at 5,784.6, in Milan the Mib 30 advanced 1.66 percent to 28,023, in Madrid the Ibex-35 closed 1.91 percent higher at 8,252.3 and in Brussels the Bel-20 finished the day with a gain of 1.18 percent at 2,441.08.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
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