European stocks rose, rebounding after the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index posted its biggest annual slump on record, as higher metals prices lifted mining companies and investors speculated governments will step up efforts to revive the global economy.
Rio Tinto Group surged 14 percent, leading a rally in raw-material producers, the region’s worst performing industry group last year. BHP Billiton Ltd and Anglo American PLC added more than 8 percent as copper gained for a fourth day in London.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index jumped 6.3 percent this week, extending its rise to 12 percent since Nov. 21. Stocks climbed as US president-elect Barack Obama pledged to stimulate growth with the biggest infrastructure investment since the 1950s and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to as low as 0 percent to combat the worst financial crisis in seven decades.
“We’re turning the page,” said Jacques Porta, a fund manager at Ofi Patrimoine in Paris, which oversees US$615 million. “We’ve left the page of panic and deep recession. Expectations of Obama and his plan are enormous.”
The STOXX 600 added 3.1 percent to 204.46 in London, the biggest advance on the first trading day of the year since 2003.
The gauge dropped 46 percent last year as credit-related losses and writedowns at financial firms that topped US$1 trillion pushed the US, Europe and Japan into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II.
Germany’s DAX Index added 3.4 percent as Siemens AG advanced. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index gained 2.9 percent.
All 19 industry groups in Europe’s STOXX 600 slid at least 18 percent last year. Gauges of miners and banks both retreated 65 percent as the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped a record 36 percent and credit losses at European financial firms neared US$300 billion.
Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, added 14 percent on Friday. Rio slumped 72 percent last year.
BHP Billiton, the biggest mining company, climbed 8.6 percent. Anglo American, the fourth-largest diversified mining company, added 11 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe’s largest oil company, gained 4.9 percent. BP PLC, the second-biggest, added 5.1 percent.
The benchmark index for European options declined on Friday. The VSTOXX Index slid 4.1 percent to 42.08. The gauge measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the Euro STOXX 50 Index.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
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Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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