■ECONOMY
Higher US debt limit urged
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday formally requested that Congress raise the US$12.1 trillion statutory debt limit, saying that it could be breached as early as mid-October. “It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations,” Geithner said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Treasury officials earlier this week said that the debt limit would be hit sometime in the October-December quarter.
■INTERNET
Publicis may buy Razorfish
Microsoft Corp is close to an agreement to sell its Razorfish Internet advertising agency to Publicis Groupe SA, owner of the Saatchi & Saatchi ad firm, said two people familiar with the talks. The deal could be signed as early as today, according to one of the people, who declined to be named because the discussions are private. Microsoft acquired Razorfish, which designs digital adverting campaigns, as part of its US$6 billion purchase of AQuantive Inc in 2007.
■TELECOMS
Nortel CEO may leave soon
Nortel Networks chief executive Mike Zafirovski is to leave the company as the Canadian telecoms stalwart fights for survival, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The news came as a Canadian Parliamentary committee opened hearings into the sale of some of Nortel Networks Corp assets to Ericsson AB. Legislators have expressed concern the country might lose technology it helped develop. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zafirovski, 55, could leave the company within weeks. He joined Nortel in 2005 on his reputation for saving companies like Motorola Inc’s cellphone division.
■ECONOMY
Canada jobs figure static
Canada shed 45,000 jobs last month, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.6 percent, Statistics Canada reported, as the country’s finance minister said a recovery next year remained likely. The drop in employment was higher than expected by analysts, who had eyed loses of around 20,000 jobs. It is a substantial increase on 7,400 jobs lost in June. Since a peak in October last year, employment has fallen 414,000, mostly among young people (-205,000) and men aged 25 to 54 (-201,000), the agency said.
■BANKING
More US banks shut down
Regulators on Friday shut down two banks in Florida and one in Oregon, bringing to 72 the number of federally insured banks to fail this year under the weight of the weak economy and rising loan losses. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the banks: First State Bank, of Sarasota, Florida; Venice, Florida-based Community National Bank of Sarasota County, and Community First Bank, of Prineville, Oregon. There were 25 bank failures in the US last year.
■WIND POWER
GE blocks Mitsubishi
General Electric Co (GE), the biggest maker of wind turbines in the US, won a key decision in its effort to block Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd from importing rival energy equipment to the US. US International Trade Commission Judge Carl Charneski said on Friday GE’s patent rights were violated by Mitsubishi Heavy, Japan’s largest heavy-machinery maker. His findings are subject to review by the six-member commission in Washington.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
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