European stocks posted a third weekly gain as companies from Royal Philips NV to Akzo Nobel NV reported profits that beat estimates and US jobs data fueled bets that the US Federal Reserve will wait until March to pare stimulus.
Philips and Akzo Nobel rose more than 5 percent, while Celesio AG jumped 13 percent after McKesson Corp agreed to buy the German drug wholesaler for 3.9 billion euros (US$5.4 billion).
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC climbed 11 percent after saying it is in talks to buy Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and form an alliance with Lloyds Banking Group PLC, while ABB Ltd increased 8.5 percent as quarterly profit rose 10 percent.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index advanced 0.5 percent to 320.09 this week, extending its rally so far this year to 14 percent. The gauge climbed to a five-year high of 320.97 on Tuesday as it capped a nine-day winning streak, the longest since June 2010.
National benchmark indices rose in 10 of the 18 western European markets this week. The UK’s FTSE 100 advanced 1.5 percent, while Germany’s DAX gained 1.4 percent to a record high and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.3 percent.
“We have profit growth, not a lot of it but we have it,” Steven Bell, a London-based fund manager at F&C Asset Management, said by telephone. “That constitutes a lukewarm case for equities, but when you consider the alternatives, the attractiveness becomes greater.”
In the US, payrolls climbed less than projected last month, data released on Tuesday more than two weeks later than scheduled showed. Consumer confidence in the world’s largest economy fell to the weakest level so far this year, another report showed.
A Bloomberg survey last week showed that economists expect the Fed to delay paring its bond purchases until March as Washington’s 16-day partial shutdown this month weighs on fourth-quarter growth.
The addition of 148,000 workers by US employers trailed the median projection in a Bloomberg survey for an increase of 180,000, but unemployment fell to 7.2 percent, the lowest level since November 2008.
“There’s still some slack in the US economy and employment continues to rise,” Bell said. “The big picture for the Fed is that the economy needs stimulus so let’s give it.”
In China, a private measure of manufacturing strengthened more than forecast this month. The reading of 50.9 for the purchasing managers’ index from HSBC Holdings PLC and Markit Economics beat the 50.4 median estimate from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Fifty is the threshold for expansion.
The advance reading of a composite index for eurozone manufacturing and services dropped to 51.5 this month from 52.2 last month. The median economist forecast had called for 52.4.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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