European stock exchanges advanced on Friday, powered by news that US consumer confidence last month, according to one survey, had shot up to its highest reading since January 2004.
The London FTSE 100 index gained 0.43 percent to close at 6,237.20, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 1.07 percent to finish at 5,614.70. In Frankfurt the DAX added 0.86 percent to reach 6,747.17.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares rose 0.86 percent to 4,173.07.
On the currency market the dollar faltered against the euro here Friday, failing to sustain a rally following publication of the consumer confidence survey.
The single European currency in late-day trade was at US$1.2971 after US$1.2962 late on Thursday in New York.
The US currency initially firmed against the euro on news that the University of Michigan US consumer confidence indicator jumped to 98 points this month from 91.7 in December, its best reading in three years.
US stocks were mixed in late morning trading following a flurry of quarterly earnings reports as Citigroup reported slowing profits and General Electric announced improved earnings.
Telecom firm Motorola announced a moderation in profits and said it would be laying off 3,500 employees this year amid a fierce price war with rival Nokia.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.09 percent at 12,556.00 at 5:05pm GMT. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite was up 0.16 percent at 2,447.10.
"The market continues to react more to bearish news than to bullish news. Companies that disappoint in any way with their earnings report are getting hammered," said Dick Green, an analyst at Briefing.com.
In London, hotel chain Intercontinental was among the day's big winners, jumping 3.59 percent on persistent takeover rumors.
Steelmaker Corus gained 1.4 percent on Indian press comment suggesting that Tata Steel could beef up its offer for Corus in its bidding battle with CSN of Brazil.
In Paris shares in utility group Suez fell 0.89 percent after French business heavyweight said that while he had secured sufficient financial backing to make a bid for Suez he would refrain from doing so because of an unstable market environment.
In Frankfurt SAP, the world's leading maker of business software, fell 0.60 percent, dragged down by a report from IBM showing that its annual financial results were below expectations.
Elsewhere there were gains of 0.35 percent to a record 9,155.12 on the Swiss Market Index, 0.12 percent to 4,472.73 on the BEL 20 in Brussels, 0.99 percent to 42,123 on the SP/MIB in Milan, 0.93 percent to 14,397.9 on the IBEX-35 in Madrid and 0.31 percent to 507.12 on the AEX in Amsterdam.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS