Major European exchanges posted weak gains on Friday after receiving mixed signals from the US economy.
The London FTSE 100 index edged up 0.09 percent to close at 6,730.70 while in Frankfurt the DAX rose by the same percentage to finish at 8,041.26.
But in Paris investors were unsettled by a weaker-than-expected reading from the University of Michigan consumer confidence index, which fell to 82 points this month after 83.4 last month. The CAC 40 index consequently lost 0.32 percent to reach 5,843.95.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares added 0.05 percent to close at 4,476.02.
On the currency market the US dollar edged slightly higher against the euro here, but remained under heavy pressure and failed to take full advantage of stronger-than-expected data from the US.
US retail sales, a crucial motor of economic growth, rose 0.6 percent last month as US consumers boosted their spending, a government report showed on Friday.
The reading defied expectations as most economists were anticipating a tepid 0.2 percent rise in overall sales.
In another report the government said surging energy costs pushed up wholesale prices by a sharp 1.1 percent last month. But the core rate of inflation viewed as more important by economists remained tame.
The producer price index (PPI) showed a much steeper gain than the 0.5 percent increase expected on Wall Street, while the core rate, watched closely by economists since it excludes volatile food and energy components, was up just 0.1 percent, below the consensus forecast with a 0.2 percent increase.
"The news today is moderately bullish and has helped reverse the temporary selling pressures from yesterday," said Dick Green, a market analyst and president at Briefing.com.
"General Electric reported profits in line with expectations and said fourth quarter profits would be consistent with current Wall Street forecasts," Green said.
GE reported a third-quarter profit of US$5.54 billion, lifted in part by the sale of its plastics division to a Saudi Arabian group.
In London mortgage lender Northern Rock, which last month had to seek a bailout from the Bank of England, shot up 5.91 percent to ?2.7325 on news that Virgin Group, controlled by British billionaire Richard Branson, was spearheading an international consortium offering to rescue the troubled bank and to rebrand it under the Virgin name.
Elsewhere there were gains of 0.20 percent to 559.14 in Amsterdam, 1.07 percent to 15,261.3 in Madrid and 0.20 percent to 41,106 in Milan. There were declines of 0.23 percent to 9,197.48 on the Swiss Market Index and 0.06 percent to 4,532.06 in Brussels.
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Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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