European shares on Friday remained just below record highs, with a boost from the financial and materials sectors, while Credit Suisse Group AG rose after a Reuters report that it was considering a merger with UBS Group AG.
The scandal-hit Swiss bank was up 1.9 percent as the report said Credit Suisse’s management was under pressure to come up with an overhaul plan. UBS shares were up 0.2 percent.
The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 0.13 percent to 457.63, ending the week with gains of 1.23 percent following sharp swings on concerns of higher inflation hitting real income and leading central banks to raise interest rates sooner than expected.
With the US Federal Reserve this week sending out mixed messages on how hot it would let inflation run, a weaker-than-expected reading on US personal consumption expenditures data eased worries about a sudden tapering in stimulus.
“What has been remarkable is how indices globally have shrugged off the Fed’s apparent change of outlook ... and have resumed the march higher, presumably following the dangling carrot of economic growth as the world returns to normal,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp said.
The STOXX 600 fell sharply from record highs last week after a surprisingly hawkish tone from Fed officials roiled global financial markets.
The European Central Bank has reiterated that it was too soon to taper monetary policy in Europe.
London’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.37 percent to record its best week in over a month, extending previous session gains as the Bank of England (BOE) on Thursday left interest rates unchanged near record lows.
Energy shares climbed 0.9 percent, while BHP Group, Anglo American PLC and Rio Tinto Group were among the top boosts to the blue-chip index.
“The UK market is the cheapest market right now relative to its European peers and support from the BOE will just add to the market positive narrative,” Forte Securities sales trader Keith Temperton said.
The European banking index rose 0.6 percent and ended the week with gains of about 2 percent as investors returned to economically sensitive sectors. Other so-called value stocks including miners and energy were also among the top gainers on the week.
Construction-related stocks added 0.2 percent following a jump in the US infrastructure sector as US President Joe Biden embraced a bipartisan US Senate infrastructure deal.
German stocks rose 0.1 percent as a report showed consumer sentiment improved more than expected heading into next month.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
RSS