European shares fell on Friday after hawkish remarks from central bank officials fanned worries over the impact of tighter policy, while France’s EDF Energy slumped as the government intervened to curb electricity prices.
The pan-European STOXX 600 shed 1.01 percent to 481.16, marking its worst week since late November with a decline of 1.05 percent.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the bank is ready to take any measures necessary to bring inflation down to its 2 percent target, driving up bets on a rate hike this year.
The eurozone inflation spike is not as transitory as earlier thought, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos added.
Tightening monetary conditions would bring an end to COVID-19-era liquidity measures, which had flushed the market with cash and driven stocks to record highs through last year.
Power group EDF plunged 14.6 percent, and was the worst performer on the STOXX 600 after France ordered the state-controlled firm to sell more of its cheap nuclear power to smaller competitors to limit electricity price rises in the country.
Nearly all sectors and regional stock indices were in the red on Friday. Retailers were the worst performers for the day, while oil stocks were the sole gainers.
“European stocks have taken the cue from falls in Asia and the US amid expectations there will be a much more aggressive stance taken to combat soaring inflation,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said.
Industrial goods were the worst performing European sector this week, down 3.8 percent as investors fretted over supply chain problems affecting production.
Robust oil prices saw oil and gas stocks outpace their peers this week with a 4.6 percent jump.
Geopolitical tensions also dulled sentiment in Europe, as no breakthrough was reached at meetings between Russia and Western states, at a time when Moscow has massed more than 100,000 troops at its frontier with Ukraine.
“There’s increased nervousness around an escalation in tensions ... as traders wait for the next move from diplomats,” Streeter said.
In London, the blue-chip FTSE 100 slipped 0.28 percent to 7,542.95.
However, it gained 0.77 percent from a week earlier, recording a fourth consecutive weekly gain, with energy stocks outpacing other sectors.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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