European stocks posted their first weekly decline this month as Italian bonds fell after a debt auction, while concern mounted that political wrangling in Washington will lead to a US government shutdown.
Vallourec SA slumped 9.1 percent after the supplier of tubing to the oil and gas industry said that the weak Brazilian real will hurt its profits, while bookmaker Ladbrokes PLC fell 11 percent as it said the operating profit from its digital division will fall short of analysts’ estimates.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Telekom Austria AG rose 11 percent as a gauge of telecom shares posted the biggest gain by an industry group on the STOXX Europe 600 Index.
The STOXX 600 retreated 0.6 percent to 312.18 this week, but the equity benchmark has still climbed 5 percent this month and 9.5 percent this quarter as the US Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from reducing its monthly bond purchases at its last policy meeting.
The gauge has rallied 12 percent this year as the eurozone emerged from recession and central banks pledged to keep borrowing costs low to support their respective economies.
National benchmark indices declined in 14 of the 18 western European markets this week. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.4 percent, the UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 1.3 percent and Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2 percent as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party won the country’s general election on Sunday last week.
Meanwhile, Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slid 1.8 percent and bond yields jumped as borrowing costs climbed and demand fell at an auction of 10-year debt. The Italian Treasury sold 3 billion euros (US$4.1 billion) of securities maturing in 2024 at an average yield of 4.5 percent, more than the 4.46 percent yield at a previous auction on Aug. 29.
Italian stocks and bonds dropped on Thursday after former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s allies threatened to resign from parliament if the Italian Senate votes to expel him because of his conviction for tax fraud. The coalition government in Rome relies on Berlusconi’s People of Liberty Party to pass new laws.
As European markets closed on Friday, the US Congress had yet to approve a federal budget for the new financial year starting on Tuesday.
US lawmakers have to pass an emergency budget by Oct. 1 to keep the federal government operating and increase its debt ceiling as total borrowing approaches the US$16.7 trillion limit.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the