European equities fell, posting their worst weekly decline since mid-June, on mounting concern that the rise in COVID-19 cases would hamper the region’s economic recovery. Banks slid to a record low.
The STOXX Europe 600 on Friday closed down 0.1 percent at 355.51, and is down 3.6 percent this week as countries including the UK and France tighten their virus rules, and former hotspots such as the Spanish capital of Madrid report rising hospitalizations.
The STOXX 600 Banks Index declined for a seventh straight day, closing at the lowest level since its creation in 1991, hit by concerns over coronavirus-related lockdowns, low interest rates and bad loans.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have started drafting a stimulus proposal of roughly US$2.4 trillion, just as economists were expressing doubts over whether additional funding would be seen this year.
“We think it makes sense to stay positioned for continued recovery and further cyclical outperformance, but the argument has become more balanced,” Bank of America Corp strategists led by Sebastian Raedler wrote in a note on Friday.
“The downside risks have increased,” they said.
UBS Global Wealth Management’s chief investment officer Mark Haefele said that “overall, we maintain our constructive outlook for equities over the coming months, while acknowledging that markets will likely be choppy.”
Meanwhile in London, a nearly 44 percent surge in bookmaker William Hill PLC on takeover offers lifted consumer stocks, helping UK shares outperform European peers and end a tumultuous week on a high note.
Without disclosing the value, buyout firm Apollo Global Management Inc and US casino operator Caesars Entertainment Inc made offers for the British betting firm, shares of which rose 43.47 percent on Friday to £312.20.
“William Hill had been one of the big gainers since March among UK equities... The news of course has done what bid approaches always do, namely lift the rest of the sector as well,” IG Group PLC chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
London’s mid-caps index end up 1.4 percent in its best day in three weeks.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index rose 0.34 percent, but losses for miners and oil stocks, which tracked commodity prices lower, and banks, which extended losses to a fourth straight session, kept gains in check.
It was down 2.74 percent from a week earlier.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained