European stocks were little changed this week as better-than-expected economic data from China and the US offset concern that debt ceiling talks will weigh on recovering growth in the world’s biggest economy.
The STOXX 600 Europe Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 287.03 this week. The measure climbed to its highest level since February 2011 last week amid speculation that US companies’ earnings would exceed analysts’ estimates.
National benchmark indeces rose in 12 of Europe’s 18 western markets. France’s CAC 40 Index added 1 percent, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index gained 0.5 percent and Germany’s DAX fell by 0.2 percent.
China’s economic growth accelerated for the first time in two years as Beijing’s efforts to revive demand drove a rebound in industrial output and retail sales.
China’s GDP advanced 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
The US economy picked up across much of the country last month, boosted by auto and home sales, even as the outlook for unemployment showed few signs of improvement, the US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in its Beige Book survey.
US builders broke ground on more houses than forecast last month. Starts climbed 12.1 percent to a 954,000 annual rate, the most since June 2008, the US Department of Commerce said on Thursday.
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments fell more than forecast last week. Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 37,000 to 335,000 in the week ended on Saturday last week, the lowest since the period ended Jan. 19, 2008, US Department of Labor data showed.
With as little as a month until the US runs out of money to pay its bills, US President Barack Obama this week warned Republicans in the US Congress not to use the need for a debt limit increase to force through new spending cuts.
US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said the so-called extraordinary measures he is taking to avoid breaching the debt ceiling would only work until the middle of next month or early March. He added that failure to raise the limit could “impose severe economic hardship” on the US.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
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