European shares bounced on Friday on hopes that a vaccine for COVID-19 could be available in the US before the end of the year, with a clutch of upbeat quarterly earnings also lifting sentiment after a torrid week.
Pfizer Inc said it could file for US authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with German partner BioNTech AG as early as next month.
The news powered global stock markets and helped lift the pan-European STOXX 600 by 1.3 percent in its best session in nearly three weeks.
The benchmark stock index nevertheless ended Friday with its first weekly decline in three as a resurgence in COVID-19 cases across Europe stoked fears about more sweeping lockdowns. The index fell 0.8 percent for the week.
London and Paris, Europe’s two richest cities, are again living under the shadow of state-imposed restrictions.
“This raises the very real fear that what is a stop-gap measure actually turns out to be something slightly longer term, which could see the collapse of hundreds of businesses,” CMC Markets UK market analyst Michael Hewson said.
The new restrictions could also stifle business activity, derail a nascent economic rebound and further pressure European stock markets, which have lagged a recovery in their US peers.
While the S&P 500 has gained about 8 percent this year, the European STOXX 600 is still down nearly 12 percent.
Adding to investor uncertainty, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said that it was time to prepare for a no-trade deal Brexit unless the EU fundamentally changed course in trade talks.
London’s FTSE 100 still rose 1.5 percent, down 1.6 percent weekly, as analysts said the majority of market participants expected a deal to be reached.
In company news, Thyssenkrupp AG surged 10.8 percent as Liberty Steel Group, founded by commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, said it had made a non-binding offer for the company’s steel unit.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE jumped 7.3 percent as recovering sales of Louis Vuitton handbags helped it contain the fallout from the coronavirus crisis in the third quarter.
Shares of other luxury goods makers, including Moncler SpA and Burberry Group PLC, rose more than 3 percent.
Telecoms and real estate were the only two European sectors to end lower on the day.
German shares gained 1.6 percent, clawing back more than half their losses from the previous session, with Daimler surging 5.5 percent after the luxury automaker posted forecast-beating third-quarter results.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
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