European stocks advanced this week as companies from Royal Dutch Shell PLC to Deutsche Bank AG reported earnings that topped estimates, US jobs data beat forecasts and US markets reopened after Hurricane Sandy forced their closure for two days.
UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, jumped to a 15-month high after saying it will cut about 10,000 jobs to boost profitability. Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, and Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest lender, advanced more than 3 percent. Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG surged after posting earnings that beat analyst estimates.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index added 1.6 percent to 274.85 this week. The benchmark completed its fifth monthly rally on Wednesday and has surged 18 percent from this year’s low on June 4, as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to defend the euro at all costs and US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced a third round of quantitative easing.
“The non-farm payroll figures confirm a US private sector that is printing jobs year-on-year at the same pace as back in 2004-05, which is good,” Peter Garnry, an equity strategist at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen, wrote in a message. “The job report was better than expected, which adds to the other good reports this week, and it will likely carry the momentum for the week all the way home to show solid gains in stocks across the board.”
Hiring in the US increased more than forecast last month, as employers looked past slowing global growth and political gridlock at home.
A net 171,000 workers were added to payrolls after a 148,000 gain in September that was more than first estimated, US Department of Labor figures showed on Friday in Washington.
US consumer confidence also climbed last month to the highest in more than four years. The Conference Board’s index increased to 72.2, the highest since February 2008, from a revised 68.4 in September, figures from the New York-based private research group showed on Thursday. The reading was projected to rise to 73, according to the median estimate of economists.
Another report on Thursday showed US manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than forecast. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index climbed to 51.7 last month from 51.5 in September. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.
National benchmark indexes advanced in 15 of 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX Index rose 1.8 percent, France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.7 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 added 1.1 percent.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
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
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
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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