European stocks rose for a third week as optimism grew that the worst of the global recession is over after reports showed the US economy lost fewer jobs than expected and Chinese manufacturing expanded for a third month last month.
Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, gained 7.2 percent after raising US$21 billion from a share sale and an iron ore venture with BHP Billiton Ltd.
Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroen led a rally among automakers after French car sales advanced 12 percent last month as a government-backed bonus program enticed consumers.
Europe’s Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index rose 1.2 percent to 210.76 this past week, having risen for all but one of the last six weeks. The measure has gained 33 percent from a 12-year low on March 9 amid optimism that government action will help end the first global recession since World War II.
“The market is resuming its gains in a healthy manner, driven by improvements in the economy,” said Bruno Ducros, a fund manager at Cardif Asset Management in Paris, which oversees about US$2.6 billion in stocks. “Rio Tinto found a way to finance itself and that’s good.”
National benchmark indexes rose in 15 of the 18 western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.5 percent, while Germany’s DAX gained 2.8 percent and France’s CAC 40 increased 1.9 percent.
UBS AG strategists reversed their preference for US stocks over European equities for the first time since 2007, saying US stocks look relatively expensive as the earnings gap between the two regions narrows. The brokerage raised its recommendation on European stocks to “overweight” and reduced US shares to “underweight.”
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England maintained their benchmark interest rates at record lows this past week.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank had no immediate plans to boost its 60 billion euro (US$84 billion) asset-purchase program or cut interest rates further as the economy shows signs of recovery.
NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer said he was “a lot more confident” the three-month rally in equities would be sustainable as trading volume increased.
“At the end of March I was apprehensive because I thought the market had gone up so much so quickly that it didn’t feel like a fundamentally driven rally to me,” Niederauer said in an interview in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
“I was nervous that the fundamentals hadn’t really changed and we hadn’t seen enough volume,” he said.
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
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
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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