In Europe on Thursday, the telecommunications sector found itself mostly up at the end of the day, but steelmakers had lost ground.

Arcelor, Europe’s biggest steel maker, was down 1.4 percent to €16.22, Corus fell 1.6 percent, and ThyssenKrupp lost 1 percent to close at €14.39.

In the telecommunications sector, KPN, the Netherlands’ biggest telecommunications company, rose by 1.5 percent to €6.94 on the announcement that it has proposed a *1.12 billion takeover of its domestic rival, Telfort.

France Telecom was up 1.5 percent to €24.16 after it had advanced by 5.3 percent on Wednesday. Deutsche Telecom rose 1.4 percent to €15.30, Telecom Italia was up 1.5 percent to €2.5875, and Telia Sonera added 3 percent to SKr37.30.

In equities markets around Europe, CAC 40 was down 0.06 percent to 4,229.35 in Paris. Xetra Dax was up by 0.06 percent to close at 4,586.28. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.2 percent to 1,141.39.

This close, however, put the eurozone-wide index up 9.6 percent for the first half of the year. Meanwhile in London, the FTSE 100 gained 4.1 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 5,113.4.

However, it had been up 30 points only 90 minutes before the close. The FTSE 250 closed at 7,368.7. Both London indexes have grown 6.2 percent since the beginning of the year. Volume was heavy in London on Thursday at 3.5 billion shares traded.

Export-dependent stocks in Tokyo were up on Wednesday as investors took note of the yen’s weakness against the US dollar and crude oil prices which had fallen sharply since the beginning of the week.

Toyota was up 0.8 percent to ¥3,920, while Canon advanced by 0.3 percent to ¥5,890. Shares in oil companies lost value however with the drop in the price of oil.

Japan Petroleum Exploration was down 2.1 percent to ¥4,640, while gas and oil project developer AOC declined by 3.7 percent to ¥1,627.

In the banking sector, meanwhile, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group was up by 1.4 percent to ¥939,000 and UFJ gained 1.2 percent to ¥576,000 on the news that shareholders had approved the merger of the two companies.

The internet services sector was mixed as Livedoor was down 1 percent to ¥383 as it backed off from recent advances, while Yahoo Japan advanced 3.1 percent to ¥234,000 after Yahoo in the US reported strong performance.

The Nikkei 225 gained 0.6 percent to 11,577.44, its highest level in 11 weeks, while the Topic index rose by 0.5 percent to 1,176.48.

In New York on Tuesday, the equities markets all finished in positive territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1 percent to 10,405.63, the S&P 500 rose 0.9 percent to 1,201.57, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.2 percent to 2,069.89.

Factors spurring the advances included a decline in crude oil prices, news that the consumer confidence index and reached a 3-year high, and improvements in the labor market.

Airlines tended to show gains on the news that oil prices were declining. Delta Air Lines advanced 12.8 percent to $3.97, AMR gained 9.3 percent to $12.3, and Air Tran Holdings was up 6.1 percent to $9.47.

Some energy stocks fell as investors interpreted lower oil prices as a threat to profits. Amerada Hess was down 3.8 percent to $106.26, while Marathon Oil lost 2.9 percent to $53.96.

The technology sector got more than its share of attention on the equities markets on Tuesday as Advanced Micro Devices announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Intel.

The suit charges that Intel forced clients to buy their chips rather than AMD’s product.

While two investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission have been closed without finding any wrongdoing on Intel‘s part, AMD has filed a complaint of anti-competitive practices by Intel to the European Commission.

A ruling by the Fair Trade Commission in Japan found that Intel had violated anti-trust laws when it offered rebates to five Japanese companies if they would limit purchases of chips made by AMD.

After news of the lawsuit was released, AMD’s shares gained 6.3 percent to $17.70, and Intel’s stock were up by 1.8 percent to $26.33.

Higher crude oil prices were hard on European equities on Monday.

Among the sectors seeing losses were airlines and automobile manufacturers. Technology stocks were also down.

Among airlines, Lufthansa was down by 1.8 percent to €9.98, Air France-KLM declined by 2.7 percent to €12.29, and Ryanair lost 1.2 percent to €6.39.

Among car makers, Peugeot was down 0.7 percent to €48.05, Daimler-Chrysler lost 1.2 percent to €33.51, Fiat fell 3.4 percent to €5.834, and Renault declined by 1.3 percent to €70.50.

Porsche, however, managed to gain 0.4 percent to €611.39 as Merrill Lynch raised the automaker’s share price target to €700 from €615.

In the technology sector, Siemens was down 1.7 percent to €60.80 on suggestions that even though it has sold its loss-plagued mobile phones unit, it was still not approaching profit targets.

Infineon, a supplier for Siemens, also declined on the news, losing 0.9 percent to €7.58.

STMicrolectronics was down 2.2 percent to €12.93, Philips lost 1.6 percent to €20.92, and ASML fell 1.3 percent to €13.30.

All this combined to send the FTSE Eurofirst 300 down 1 percent to 1,130.

In Frankfurt, meanwhile, even the first increase in German business confidence in four months could not lift the Xetra Dax into positive territory as it fell 0.9 percent to 4,523.82.

Proposed cuts in sugar subsidies paid by the European Union have Caribbean nations that have traditionally exported sugar to Europe wondering why they were not consulted about the new proposal in any meaningful way and why they are being given such a short time to adjust to the changes the cuts will bring.

The EU proposed this week to cut guaranteed sugar prices by 39 percent. The proposed plan gives the sugar producers only two years to make needed changes in their operations in order to compensate for lost revenues. Even though the prices the EU would pay under the plan are still over twice free market prices, the cuts will still be a burden on the nations affected.

In Guyana, which along with Jamaica will be most heavily hit by the cuts, 750,000 people make their living working in the sugar industry. The proposed EU cuts will cost the country $40 million (£22 million) in export revenues, over six times the $8 million in relief that the nation expects to receive from the recent G-8 debt relief program.

Jamaica has plans to develop alternate uses for sugar such as ethanol production and Gagasse-based generation of electricity, but officials say they will need more time than they would have under the EU proposal to put those plans into use.

The Tokyo equities markets gained ground on Wednesday despite declines in the steel sector. Technology was up slightly and automobile manufacturers benefited from the hard times of steel producers.

In the technology sector, Sony gained 0.5 percent to ¥3,890 and Advantest advanced 0.4 percent to ¥8,210.

The steel sector’s problems stemmed from earnings forecasts that had to be revised down and from price cuts.

JFE Holdings lost 0.4 percent to ¥2,720, while Tokyo Steel Manufacturing lost 0.5 percent to ¥1,420 on the announcement earlier in the week of price cuts.

Meanwhile Nippon Steel, the world’s second-biggest steel maker, fell 1.5 percent to ¥258 on an earnings forecast that was revised downward.

But the steel sector’s misfortunes were good news for auto makers as Nissan gained 1.2 percent to ¥1,105 while Toyota was up 1 percent to ¥3,950.

The continuing rise in the price of crude oil sent European equities markets lower Monday.

In London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent to 5,072.0, while the FTSE 250 declined by 0.3 percent to 7,335.7. A low volume of 2.2 billion shares were traded.

Oil companies benefited, as BG Group gained 1.5 percent to 455 ¾p and Shell was up by 0.6 percent to 519 ¾p.

Companies with high oil expenditures, conversely, took losses. ICI declined by 2.9 percent to 266 ½p, while British Airways fell 1.7 percent to 272.25p.

France’s market had the largest retreat of the day in major European equities markets, falling 0.7 percent on the day to 4,193.4.

Notably, Michelin was down 1 percent to €51 as a consequence of safety questions raised on Sunday after all the cars using Michelin tyres pulled out of the US Grand Prix auto race when the company said that it could not guarantee the safety of their tyres for the duration of the race, resulting in only six cars actually running the race.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.05 percent to 1,139.13, with gains in the oil sector offset by profit-taking in some other sectors.

Companies on the Eurofirst benefiting from the rise in oil prices included BP, with a rise of 0.7 percent to 490.5p and Royal Dutch, which advanced by 0.9 percent to €52.

The stock exchange in São Paulo, Brazil, had lost at least three percentage points in early trade on Wednesday as a political corruption scandal involving the ruling Worker’s party (PT) flared up again.

The PT has been accused of bribing some legislators as a way of securing their votes.

Earlier in the week, it looked as if the scandal was dying down after Roberto Jefferson, head of the PTB party, which is a member of the ruling coalition, could only provide circumstantial evidence that the PT had bribed legislators when he testified before a congressional panel on the issue.

However, an interview was published on Wednesday in which the former secretary of a PT aide said she had witnessed repeated deliveries of cash to government officials.

Some analysts now say that the accusations being made in the controversy have as much to do with the upcoming general election, set for October, as it does with trying to root out corruption in the government.

Especially if this is true, the scandal and the crisis that it has caused will not be over any time soon.

European equities markets finished the week on gains Friday, while the New York markets were mostly up just a little with the exception of the Nasdaq, which was down just a little.

There wasn’t much movement this week in New York, and this continued on Friday as investors tried to figure out where the market was headed after statements by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday seemed not to jibe exactly with statements made earlier by other officials of the Fed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent on the week and the S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent, but Nasdaq, lost 0.4 percent this week.

In the eurozone, the oil sector did well even though crude oil prices suffered small losses during the week. Technology stocks continued a comeback from first-quarter lows.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 saw a three-year high. It closed 0.6 percent higher for the day and up 1.1 percent on the week. The Paris and Frankfurt markets also hit three-year highs.

In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent during the week to close at 5030.4 on Friday, its highest since March 4.

The FTSE 250 was also up, gaining 0.8 percent on the week, closing at 7,264.2 on Friday. The oil sector, banks, and IT hardware makers were instrumental in the advances.

Equities markets in Shanghai and Seoul were up on Thursday, while Taipei, Manila, and Tokyo fell on the day.

The composite index in Shanghai rose 1.4 percent to 1,131.052, after advance of 8.4 percent on Wednesday; that was the largest 1-day advance in Taipei in 3 years.

The market in Seoul, meanwhile, was up, by 1.2 percent to 987.58 as the shipping sector advanced on lower oil prices.

On the losing side, the market was down in Taipei as the weighted index fell 0.3 percent to 6,145.92 on profit taking in the technology sector.

In Manila, worries about government corruption led the composite index down 2.8 percent to 1,898.24, after the market there had its largest weekly advance in two years just last week. Additionally, the peso fell to a 2-month low against the US dollar.

The latest scandal involves allegations that individuals in the Philippine president’s family have been accepting gambling payoffs.

In Tokyo, the markets fell to a 2-week low as the technology and automobile manufacturing sectors were down and export-oriented stocks generally were down on data showing that export volumes have dropped on a year-to-year basis in three of the past four months.

The Nikkei 225 fell 1.1 percent to 11,160 while the Topix index was down 0.9 percent to 1,138.7.

Japanese investors were also influenced by higher estimates of inflation and lowered economic growth forecasts in the US as well as by anticipation over Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s upcoming remarks in front of a Congressional committee.

Hiroshi Okuda, the chairman of Toyota and the head of the Japanese Business Federation, has expressed concern that if Ford and General Motors do not solve their current economic problems, foreign carmakers might suffer a backlash from the United States in the form of protectionist practices.

Mr. Okuda was quoted as saying that “nationalistic sentiment” could trigger such protectionist policies.

The director of a Washington, DC, think tank, International Economics, does not see this as a realistic possibility due to the current international nature of the automobile sector, and said that more attention is likely to paid to the yen-to-dollar exchange rate in solving any perceived inequities.

But Mr. Okuda is not comforted by the argument that the presence of Japanese manufacturing facilities in the United States will work against the idea of seeking protectionist policies. Both Ford and GM have said that they are not looking for any benefits in the form of trade restrictions that would put them in a better position than foreign carmakers.

Such restrictions were avoided in the early 1980s only by voluntary cuts in imports by Japanese car manufacturers. Ford and GM together had a 47 percent share of the market in 2004, down from a 65 percent share in 1982.

There were big losers and big gainers in the New York equities markets on Tuesday. Retailer Sears lost 8.7 percent and closed at $141.50 as it reported losses in the most recent quarter, making it one of the worst performers on the S&P 500 for the day.

In the food sector, ConAgra was down 5.4 percent to $24.50 when they warned investors that earnings will be affected by problems in its packaged-meat division. On the winning side, biotechnology company Monsanto was up 4.8 percent to $61.63 after it announcement that it was taking an equity share in Solutia, one of their bankrupt affiliates.

A notable but not as precipitous rise was the 1 percent gain for General Motors as it announced a plan to cut 25,000 jobs in the next four years. Shares in GM have declined in value by 22 percent this year. Overall, the S&P 500 fell just a bit to 1,197.36, the Nasdaq was down 0.4 percent to close at 2,067.14, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2 percent to 10,484.18.

The markets had rallied earlier in the day after Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s Monday night comments to a conference in Beijing were interpreted to mean that interest rates would not be going too high in the immediate future.

The KSE-100 average in Karachi, Pakistan fell more than 4 percent, to just above the 6900 level, in the first hour of trade on Monday morning after investors learned of the delay of the sale of as much as 26 percent of shares in state-owned Pakistan Telecommunications (PTCL).

The sale, which was to privatize the company, was expected to raise between US$1.5 - 1.6 billion.

The delay in the sale was announced late Friday night, ahead of a strike deadline of Monday set by the PTCL labour unions in case the privatization went ahead.

The sale, if and when it does occur, is planned to be accompanied by a transfer of management responsibilities to the new purchaser. The new management is then expected to cut many of the company’s 61,000 jobs.

A government minister said that the delay was a temporary measure to avert the strike and that a new date for the sale would be announced, perhaps as soon as this week.

An analyst, however, said that the delay had destroyed any confidence investors had in the sale and that any newly announced date would be met with skepticism.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed at 1,117.56 on Friday, a decline of 0.2 percent for the day but a 1.5 percent gain over the week.

On Wednesday it had closed at a three-year high of 1,120.59. This was strong performance in a week of bad political developments, with the continuing fall of the euro helping export-oriented stocks to perform especially well.

Higher crude oil prices helped the oil sector do well, as Royal Dutch rose 1.9 percent to €48.35, Total was up 1.7 percent to €182.60, and Eni advanced 1.5 percent to €21.17. The automobile manufacturing sector saw even bigger gains.

Fiat was up 9.1 percent for the week to €5.99, while Porsche was up 7.7 percent to €594.50 on a 35 percent rise in US sales last month. BMW gained 3.5 percent to €36.17, and DaimlerChrysler advanced 2.3 percent to €33.08. The semiconductor sector also did well this week. STMicroelectronics rose by 4.9 percent to €7.52.

Infineon gained 4.4 percent on the week to €7.52 on word that it had secured a contract to make security chips for German passports, and ASML was up to €13.55, a gain of 3.3 percent.

Both Australian air carrier Qantas and Singapore Airlines have said that they were informed by Airbus that there will be a delay of at least six months before the two airlines will begin to receive their orders for the new A380 superjumbo jet.

Singapore Airlines said that they were told that their first plane would be delivered in the last quarter of 2006 rather than in the second quarter, and Qantas will have to wait until April of 2007 to receive the first of the 12 planes they have ordered instead of getting it in autumn of 2006.

The delay comes at an unfortunate time for Airbus. Its majority parent company, EADS, has been contending with conflicts among some shareholders concerning management structure. Additionally, the US and European Union are continuing to contend over issues related to government subsidies for civil aircraft development.

The delays will also affect cash flow to Airbus, EADS and minority shareholder BAE Systems.

A spokeswoman for Airbus said that the delays are being caused by “industrial issues” revealed by the initial test flights of the aircraft, necessary modifications, and issues over customizations that some airlines had requested for their planes.

Also a factor was the effort to keep the weight of the aircraft down. The spokeswoman also clamed that no new aircraft had ever been delivered on time. Qantas has said that it will be asking for compensation for the delivery delays, as outlined in its contract with Airbus.

Equities markets in Taipei, Sydney, and Singapore were up on Thursday but Hong
Kong and Tokyo markets were down in a mixed day for Asian stocks.

The weighted index in Taipei was up 1.1 percent to 6,039.48 on gains in shares of smaller technology companies, but larger technology firms saw losses on the day. In Sydney the advances in the energy and mining sectors helped the S&P/ASX 200 to rise 0.8 percent to 4,180.7. In Singapore, the Strait Times index rose 0.7 percent to close to a five year high of 2,191.55.

Shares in banks went higher as optimism over the future of Singapore’s economy reigned. Technology shares also gained in value. On the negative side, investors were showing caution
ahead of several upcoming Chinese initial public offerings scheduled for Hong Kong, and worries over next year’s real estate prices sent property stocks lower.

These circumstances combined to send the Hang Seng index down 0.4 percent to 13,814.58. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent to 11,280.05 and the Topix was down 0.1 percent to 1,148.85.

In London on Wednesday, the FTSE 100 gained 1 percent to 5,011.0, the first time it had crested the 5000 level since March 15. The FTSE 250 was up as well, gaining 0.5 percent to 7,148. Trading volume was 2.8 billion shares.

A lot of the activity on the day was within the media sector. Satellite television broadcaster BSkyB didn’t fare terribly well, as its shares lost 1.8 percent to 535 ½p after Morgan Stanley cut the broadcaster’s rating because it believes that BSkyB will not be able to meet its goal of 10 million subscribers by 2010.

Faring better was media and market research group Aegis, whose shares advanced 0.5 percent to 98p after it announced that it will purchase Polish interactive agency HYPERmedia as well as ARTeam, a French market research group. T & F Informa, a business and academic publisher, also saw its shares gain in value after it announced that it plans to buy IIR Holdings, a privately held US training and events organizer, for £768 million.

Shares in T & F Informa gained 6.4 percent to 434p. Scottish Radio Holdings did even better, gaining 14.6 percent to sit at £10 after it turned down an offer from Emap of £10.40 per share 72.9 percent of SRH shares that Emap does not own because it felt that the Emap offer undervalued its core radio operation.