European stocks were little changed this week as uncertainty in Cyprus and a political deadlock in Italy overshadowed better-than-estimated US and German economic data.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.1 percent in a four-day week before the Easter holiday, after declining the most in four months the previous week. The gauge has still advanced 5 percent this quarter and traded to its highest level since June 2008, bolstered by US economic reports and monetary stimulus from central banks.
The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed above its record closing level set in October 2007. Durable-goods orders rose last month by the most in five months while the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of property values in 20 cities showed its biggest year-over-year increase since June 2006.
In Europe, German retail sales unexpectedly climbed last month, rising 0.4 percent. That followed a revised 3 percent in January and compared with the median economist forecast for 0.6 percent.
National benchmark indexes still fell in 14 of the 18 western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX slipped 1 percent and 1.5 percent respectively. Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 4.4 percent, while Greece’s ASE Index lost 6.6 percent and the stock market in Cyprus remained closed for a second week.
Cyprus this week obtained a 10 billion euro international bailout after the country agreed to shut down its second-largest lender and impose losses on uninsured deposits of more than 100,000 euros (US$130,000). The deal replaced a previous eurozone demand to impose a levy on all bank accounts.
Stocks and the euro sank earlier in the week after media reported that Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the Euro Group of the bloc’s 17 finance ministers, said the Cyprus bailout should be viewed as a template for solving banking problems in the region. Shares pared losses when Dijsselbloem later clarified his remarks, saying that Cyprus is a “specific case with exceptional challenges.”
In Italy, bond yields surged after Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani ruled out creating a broad coalition following a failed meeting with rival politicians.
Bersani won a majority in the lower house of Italy’s parliament last month and needs additional support in the Italian Senate to form a government.
A gauge of eurozone banks declined 2.2 percent. Mediobanca SpA fell 11 percent in Milan, while Banco Popolare SC slid 8.5 percent. Societe Generale SA retreated 6.6 percent in Paris and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA sank 7.3 percent in Madrid.
Portuguese lenders also slumped as Moody’s Investor Service affirmed the country’s junk debt rating with a negative outlook, saying the economy will likely undergo a later-than-expected contraction this year.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
RSS