The credit ratings for France have not been downgraded by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the company said on Thursday, clarifying what it says was an accidental transmission of a message to some subscribers that it had downgraded the nation’s credit.
In a statement, S&P said a technical error caused the automatic dissemination of a message to some subscribers of its Global Credit Portal “suggesting that France’s credit rating had been changed.”
S&P said that was not the case and France’s ratings remained at “AAA,” the highest investment-grade rating, with a “stable” outlook.
The release was sent to some S&P Ratings subscribers under the headline “DOWNGRADE,” and a link to the France ratings. Anyone who would have clicked on the link would have seen that France’s rating was unchanged, S&P spokesman Martin Winn said.
The original notice was sent at 9:57am, and a new release acknowledging the error and affirming France’s credit rating was sent out at 11:30am.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in a statement that he has asked the European and French market regulators to investigate the error.
The French regulator AMF confirmed an investigation has been opened and it has contacted the European Securities and Markets Authority.
S&P said that it was also investigating.
A downgrade of France’s credit rating would likely be a hard hit to investors, who have shown little patience with the economic instability in Europe.
Traders have been concerned in recent days that debt troubles in Italy and Greece could spread to the US and lead to a global crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 389 points on Wednesday after Italy’s borrowing rates soared to a dangerous level and talks in Greece on naming a new prime minister broke down.
Worries eased on Thursday after Italy sold debt at more favorable rates than analysts expected and there were also signs of progress in Greece.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is