European stocks posted the biggest weekly decline in seven weeks as economic reports from the US and Japan heightened concern that the global economic recovery may be stalling.
Vestas Wind Systems A/S led energy companies lower, plunging 23 percent, after the wind-turbine maker cut its revenue forecast. Holcim Ltd, the world’s second-biggest cement maker, lost 5.1 percent as earnings missed estimates. BHP Billiton Ltd sank 6.3 percent after making a hostile US$40 billion bid for Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc.
The benchmark STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 1.3 percent to 252.15 this past week, the biggest drop since July 2, as reports showed US jobless-benefit claims climbed to the highest level in nine months and Japan’s economy grew at the slowest pace in three quarters.
“The data is obvious: It is a slowdown,” said Herbert Perus, Vienna-based head of equities at Raiffeisen Capital Management. “The recovery will not go on in a straight line. Big investors are positioned for a double-dip scenario.”
The STOXX 600 has retreated 7.4 percent from this year’s high in April amid concern that European governments will struggle to reduce their budget deficits and speculation that the US economy may tip back into recession. The gauge is almost unchanged for the year.
National benchmark indices fell in 16 out of 18 western European markets this week. France’s CAC 40 dropped 2.4 percent and Germany’s DAX slid 1.7 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 1.5 percent.
A measure of energy stocks posted the biggest decline among 19 industry groups in the STOXX 600 as crude oil fell to a six-week low in New York.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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