European markets edged higher on Friday, lifted by financial and mining stocks, with uncertainty over a US-China trade deal limiting gains fueled by dovish signals from the US Federal Reserve this week.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that the US economy was still under threat from disappointing factory activity, tame inflation and a simmering trade dispute, and said the Fed stood ready to “act as appropriate.”
The pan-European STOXX 600 edged up 0.04 percent to 386.85, lifted by an increase in basic resources stocks as China iron ore logged its best week since about the middle of last month. Banks rose 0.7 percent.
Meanwhile, data out of China showed that Beijing’s exports fell last month as the US ramped up trade pressure, while imports shrank more than expected, pointing to further strains on the world’s second-largest economy.
“The export data was really weak, and it’s one signal that the trade war has started to bite Chinese exporters and that companies are starting to reroute their supply chains,” said Stefan Koopman, senior market economist at Rabobank NV in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
“European markets are waiting for a cue on what is happening between the United States and China on trade,” he said.
Regional markets have regained their footing after a huge sell-off in May due to an escalation in US-China trade tensions on expectations of rate cuts by major central banks.
Friday’s moves capped a tepid week and set the main index to post its first weekly loss in six weeks, in contrast to world stocks that are on course to end the week higher.
The STOXX 600 fell 0.8 from last week’s 390.11.
Putting a damper on trade deal hopes, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that China was not living up to promises it made on buying agricultural products from US farmers.
Among stocks, Daimler AG slipped 0.8 percent after the luxury automaker warned investors that it expected to swing to a second-quarter loss before interest and taxes of 1.6 billion euros (US$1.81 billion).
“It’s highly indicative on what is happening on trade over the last couple of months. We’ve seen carmakers have difficulty, with Chinese car sales dropping over the past six to 12 months,” Koopman said.
Healthcare stocks slipped as drugmakers resumed their slide after the White House said it was ditching a key plan to lower US drug prices, raising the possibility of new measures focused on drugmakers.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
RSS