Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsSemiconductor firm ASML is continuing to benefit from the AI boom, but also expects a significant fall in demand from China next year.ASML, which makes machines which make chips, has reported a small slowdown in sales in the last quarter this morning. It posted total net sales of €7.5bn in the third quarter of this year, down from nearly €7.7bn in Q2.“On the market side, we have seen continued positive momentum around investments in AI, and have also seen this extending to more customers, both in leading-edge Logic and advanced DRAM. On the other hand, we expect China customer demand, and therefore our China total net sales in 2026, to decline significantly compared to our very strong business there in 2024 and 2025.This suggests that the slump in the demand for luxury is starting to level off. There was also growth in sales to China, which had been hit by a slump in recent years. Analysts now expect the leather goods sector, especially Luis Vuitton and Christian Dior, could fuel growth for this sector into next year. Continue reading...