European stocks gained on Friday as investors awaited further stimulus and vaccine news, while bitcoin slipped back from record highs to below US$48,000.
In equities, Paris posted gains of 0.6 percent and London 0.9 heading into the weekend, although Frankfurt was near flat at the close.
Markets around the world are “remaining buoyed by the recent rally that has been fueled by COVID-19 vaccine rollout progress and elevated expectations that the US will deliver further fiscal relief,” Charles Schwab Corp analysts commented.
Equities have rallied this year on the back of vaccine rollouts, falling infection and death rates, and optimism that US President Joe Biden will push through his US$1.9 trillion stimulus package.
However, London sentiment was dented on Friday by news that the coronavirus-ravaged UK economy shrank by a record 9.9 percent last year, despite an upturn in the second half.
Bitcoin had touched a new high of US$48,930 in Asian trade after MasterCard Inc and US bank Band of New York Mellon Corp moved on Thursday to make it easier for people to use the cryptocurrency, only to trade over US$1,000 lower around 5pm GMT on Friday.
“Bitcoin had a great week” thanks in part to the institutional backing, Oanda Corp senior analyst Ed Moya said, but “the key for bitcoin’s path higher is to win over more corporate endorsements.”
AxiCorp Financial Services Pty analyst Stephen Innes said that the earnings season has gone well in the US and Europe, although “investors need some good old proof in the economic pudding before taking that next leap of faith.”
Elsewhere, oil prices were on the up even as uncertainty persists over how far demand will recover from last year’s plunge.
With most of Asia closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, business was limited. Tokyo and Wellington both fell, while Sydney was also hit by news of snap virus lockdown in Melbourne.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group