European stocks declined over the week as concern deepened that the region’s debt crisis will spread and a report showed US employers added fewer workers than forecast, fueling speculation the economic recovery is slowing.
The benchmark STOXX Europe 600 Index slid 0.4 percent to 273.76 this past week. The gauge has fallen for 9 weeks out of the past 10, bringing its decline since this year’s high on Feb. 17 to 6 percent.
“The Europe crisis is not over and also we had a reminder that this is indeed a very weak recovery in the US,” said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels. “There is plenty to make us think this will remain a very nasty and volatile summer with a lot of worries.”
European stocks erased their weekly advance yesterday after US Labor Department data showed US employers added 18,000 workers in June, the fewest in nine months. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for a June gain of 105,000. The unemployment rate in the world’s biggest economy rose to 9.2 percent, the highest this year. Hiring by companies, excluding government agencies, was the weakest since May last year.
National benchmark indexes fell in 14 of the 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2 percent and France’s CAC 40 Index tumbled 2.3 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 was almost unchanged.
Italy’s FTSE MIB slid 7.2 percent, the most in 14 months, as UniCredit sank 20 percent.
Banco Espirito Santo, Portugal’s biggest publicly traded bank by market value, slumped 7.1 percent while Banco Comercial Portugues SA, the second-largest, retreated 13 percent to a record low. Moody’s cut Portugal’s credit rating to “Ba2” as the nation joined Greece as the second euro-region country with a non-investment grade rating.
Credit Agricole SA, France’s third-largest bank, dropped 12 percent and National Bank of Greece SA slid 10 percent.
European regulators this week will try to end the region’s banking crisis by forcing firms to publish details of capital shortfalls in a more stringent and detailed set of stress tests that will give firms six months to plug any gaps. Results of the second round of tests will be released on Wednesday, the European Banking Association said.
BSkyB fell 12 percent, the most since October 2008, after the British government said it will take “some time” to consider responses to News Corp’s proposed purchase of the stake in the broadcaster that it doesn’t already own amid public outcry over the actions of News Corp journalists.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
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