Shares of Dynegy Inc, Reliant Resources Inc and other electricity suppliers rose after a regulatory judge determined they are owed money by California's utilities for power sales made during the state's energy crisis.
Dynegy shares rose US$0.15, or 17 percent, to US$1.05 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Reliant rose US$0.50, or 22 percent, to US$2.75; Williams Cos rose US$0.48, or 21 percent, to US$2.82.
The ruling may signal reduced liability for the companies, which California had accused of manipulating power prices and overcharging utilities in the state by US$8.9 billion, investors said. While the judge ordered US$1.8 billion in refunds, he said the companies are still owed US$1.2 billion for unpaid bills.
Most of the energy suppliers had "expected a washout between what they're owed and what they'd have to refund," said Edward Paik, who manages US$450 million, including 2 million Reliant shares, in the Liberty Utilities Fund. "If they still have money due them, that's better than expected."
Shares of Williams and Reliant had plunged more than 80 percent this year, and Dynegy fell more than 95 percent, as regulators and prosecutors widened their probe of price manipulation during California's energy crisis in 2000-2001.
A US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administrative law judge, Bruce Birchman, concluded after a review of contracts that dozens of electricity suppliers overcharged California utilities by about US$1.8 billion, yet had been owed US$3 billion.
The judge's ruling is subject to a 20-day public comment period and needs to be approved by the commission's three members before becoming final. Findings that California's electricity or natural-gas prices were manipulated may prompt the commission to increase the amount of the refunds, officials said.
The commission hopes to have final rulings in March, spokesman Kevin Cadden has said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day