European shares ended flat on Friday as surging COVID-19 cases compounded fears of the damage to the bloc’s economy in the coming winter months, although the benchmark index clocked its second straight week of gains.
The pan-European STOXX 600 edged 0.01 percent higher after jumping earlier this week on optimism about a working COVID-19 vaccine.
The index has gained 12.5 percent in the past two weeks, also buoyed by hopes of calmer global trade under US president-elect Joe Biden.
“Even if the greater likelihood of a vaccine has brightened prospects for next year, the near-term economic outlook is still very gloomy,” Capital Economics Ltd Europe economist Jessica Hinds said.
“Much of the eurozone is yet again subject to substantial restrictions on daily life that are taking their toll on economic activity, particularly in parts of the services sector,” Hinds said.
German Minister of Health Jens Spahn said it was too early to say whether restrictions imposed last week would need to be extended beyond this month, while French Prime Minister Jean Castex said there would be no easing for at least two weeks.
German shares rose 0.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 index gained 0.3 percent after having risen to an eight-month high earlier this week.
Despite rallying more than 40 percent since a coronavirus-driven crash in March, the STOXX 600 is down about 7 percent this year on concerns that the second round of lockdowns would threaten a nascent economic recovery.
The S&P 500, in contrast, has risen 9.5 percent so far this year.
With the eurozone likely heading back into recession this quarter, the European Central Bank has already said it would provide more stimulus next month.
European banking stocks outperformed major sectors surged 16.5 percent this week, while travel stocks, which have lost 25 percent of their value so far this year, ended their second week higher.
Technology stocks, which have tracked a surge in their US peers as investors gravitate toward sectors that have seen higher demand in this year’s stay-at-home environment, gained 0.3 percent on Friday.
French power group EDF SA gained 0.4 percent as it showed signs of improving performance in the third quarter, while German property group Deutsche Wohnen AG fell 1 percent after its third-quarter earnings update.
Overall, quarterly results for STOXX 600 companies have been better than expected, with 68 percent of the firms that have reported results so far beating analysts’ earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS