FINANCE
Moody’s cuts Spain’s rating
Ratings agency Moody’s slashed Spain’s sovereign credit rating by a notch to “Aa2” yesterday and warned of further cuts, saying that the country’s plans to clean up the battered banking sector would cost more than the government expects and add to its debt burden.
Moody’s Investors Service also said it had ongoing worries about the Spanish government’s ability to achieve structural improvement in its finances. A negative outlook reflects concerns that Spain’s government finances “remain skewed to the downside,” the ratings agency said.
TRADE
German exports gain ground
German exports gained a solid 24.2 percent in January over the past 12 months, official but provisional figures released in Frankfurt yesterday showed, pushing the country’s trade surplus higher. The value of German exports rose to 78.5 billion euros (US$108.7 billion), the Destatis office said, a sign of sustained strength in Europe’s biggest economy, while imports gained 24.1 percent to 68.4 billion euros. That pushed the national trade surplus up to 10.1 billion euros, from 8.1 billion in January last year, Destatis said.
JAPAN
GDP contracted 1.3% in Q4
Japan’s economy shrank more than initially thought in the fourth quarter, the government said yesterday. Real GDP contracted at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent in the October-December period, worse than the negative 1.1 percent growth reported in preliminary data last month. The Cabinet Office’s revised report includes weaker figures for business investment and consumer spending. The annualized figure translates to a 0.3 percent fall from the previous three-month period. For the full calendar year last year, Japan’s economy expanded 3.9 percent, unchanged from the preliminary report.
UNITED STATES
Foreclosures hit 3-year low
US foreclosure filings fell last month to the lowest level in three years as lenders under legal scrutiny struggled to process a backlog of defaults and put new systems in place for home seizures, RealtyTrac Inc said. A total of 225,101 US properties received notices of default, auction or repossession, down 14 percent from January and 27 percent from February last year, the Irvine, California-based data seller said yesterday in a statement.
MINING
Rio Tinto raises bid again
Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has again raised its offer for Riversdale Mining Ltd, valuing the coal miner and its African operations at US$4 billion. Rio Tinto said yesterday that it was raising its offer to US$16.50 a share, up from the US$16 offered in December. The takeover would be Rio Tinto’s first major acquisition since its US$38 billion takeover of Alcan in 2007. Doug Ritchie, chief executive of Rio Tinto’s energy division, says that Riversdale needs his company’s expertise to develop its projects.
GAMING
Kinect breaks all-time record
Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it has sold more than 10 million Kinect motion-sensing game system units worldwide in just over four months, making it the fastest-selling consumer device on record. The infrared camera add-on for the Xbox game console helped boost Microsoft’s revenue in the last quarter and is trouncing a rival product from Sony Corp.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six