UNITED STATES
Fed to make housing points
The Federal Reserve plans on sending Congress “legislative recommendations” next week on how to help the housing market recover, Senator Dianne Feinstein said on Thursday after a meeting with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Democratic lawmakers, who met with Bernanke at their weekly policy luncheon, said he stressed that more needed to be done to help the housing sector, which has hindered the country’s economic recovery and forced President Barack Obama’s administration to retool foreclosure prevention programs. Bernanke also told senators the debt crisis in Greece and Europe were having an impact on the domestic economy, according Senator Richard Durbin.
GERMANY
Business confidence drops
The country’s business confidence deteriorated again this month, the Ifo economic research institute said yesterday, but the decline was not quite as steep as expected. The monthly Ifo business climate index fell to 106.4 points this month from 107.4 points last month, while economists had been penciling in a fractionally steeper decline to 106.3 points. Nevertheless, the index is still at its lowest level since June last year, when it also stood at 106.4 points.
CHINA
No rate moves soon: expert
The country is unlikely to cut interest rates or change its monetary policy stance until the pace of consumer price increases slows to less than 5 percent, said Yu Yongding (余永定), a former central bank adviser. “Inflation is under control and the inflation rate will fall,” said Yu, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher, in Beijing yesterday. “I don’t think there will be any major changes in policy either further tightening or loosening” until cost-of-living gains decline, he said. Inflation moderated to 6.1 percent last month from a year earlier after reaching a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July. Gains in consumer prices will drop to 5.8 percent by the end of the year, Yu said. He estimated the inflation rate may be less than 5 percent next year as food and pork prices stabilize.
TELECOMS
Nokia trims Q3 losses
Nokia Corp narrowed its losses more than anticipated during the third quarter even though its smartphone sales continued to suffer in the face of stiff competition from Apple Inc’s iPhone. Finland’s biggest company reported a third-quarter net loss of 68 million euros (US$94 million). Though that’s a big reverse from last year’s equivalent profit of 529 million euros, it represented an improvement on the second quarter’s 368 million euro loss. Despite signs of encouragement, Nokia continues to suffer from heavy competition in the smartphone market. Its sales of smartphones dropped 39 percent to 2.2 billion euros, from 3.6 billion euros a year earlier, knocking overall revenue by 13 percent to 8.9 billion euros.
ELECTRONICS
HP’s Robison stepping down
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) chief strategy officer Shane Robison is stepping down, one of the first major casualties at the technology giant under new CEO Meg Whitman. The 11-year veteran of HP will retire effective Nov. 1, the company said. Robison also was chief technology officer and a member of the company’s executive council. HP said he was instrumental in steering the company’s multibillion-dollar research and development spending and has guided many of the company’s largest acquisitions.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI