European stocks posted their biggest weekly decline since June as better-than-estimated US economic reports spurred speculation that the US Federal Reserve will begin cutting stimulus measures sooner than forecast.
ThyssenKrupp AG slumped 9.3 percent after Germany’s largest steelmaker raised 882.3 million euros (US$1.21 billion) through a share sale, while Standard Chartered PLC lost 8.1 percent.
On the winning side this week were Sage Group PLC, the UK’s biggest software maker, which rose 6.8 percent after reporting revenue growth that exceeded analysts’ estimates, as well as AZ Electronic Materials SA, which surged 43 percent after Merck KGaA agreed to buy it for about £1.6 billion (US$2.6 billion).
The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 2.7 percent to 316.5 this week. The regional benchmark gauge has still surged 13 percent this year as EU central banks pledged to continue their support for economic growth.
The Euro STOXX 50 Index, a measure for the eurozone, lost 3.5 percent this week.
“Strong employment data means tapering comes sooner, but you also don’t want weak numbers,” Andreas Nigg, head of equity and commodity strategy at Vontobel Asset Management in Zurich, Switzerland, said in a telephone interview.
National benchmark indices retreated in all 18 western European markets this week, except Iceland. Germany’s DAX lost 2.5 percent, while France’s CAC 40 slid 3.9 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 1.5 percent for its fifth consecutive weekly retreat.
European markets pared weekly losses after data from the US Department of Labor on Friday showed payrolls increased by 203,000 last month, following a revised 200,000 advance in October.
The median forecast of 89 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 185,000 advance last month. The report also showed that the US jobless rate dropped to a five-year low of 7 percent.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that increased commodity prices, weaker domestic demand and slow export growth all posed downside risks to the outlook for the eurozone’s economy.
ECB officials kept the main refinancing rate unchanged at 0.25 percent, as predicted by every economist in a Bloomberg News survey.
In the UK, the Bank of England left its key interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent, in line with its guidance on rates.
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
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