FINANCE
Markets judge France
Investors aren’t waiting for Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s Investors Service to strip France, Europe’s second-biggest economy, of its top credit rating. The extra yield demanded to lend to “AAA”-rated France for 10 years was 155 basis points more than the German rate at 9:12am yesterday. The gap was 200 basis points on Nov. 17, the widest spread since 1990, up from 28 in April. The French 10-year yield was at 3.47 percent, about midway between top-rated Holland and Belgium, which is graded one level lower at “Aa1” by Moody’s. French borrowing costs are more than a percentage point above the “AAA”-rated UK. “France isn’t trading like a ‘AAA,’” said Bill Blain, a strategist at Newedge Group in London, who recommends buying UK government debt. “The market has made its judgment already.”
CURRENCIES
Rupee drops to record low
The Indian rupee yesterday hit a record low against the US dollar as fears about eurozone debt and the global economy, as well as falling local stock markets, provoked further selling of the currency. The rupee plunged to 52.50 against the greenback as foreign exchange markets opened, causing further problems for the Indian central bank as it tries to rein in near double-digit inflation. The weakening rupee is expected to fuel domestic inflation because oil imports priced in US dollars will become more expensive, translating into higher prices for local consumers and businesses.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung, Google talk TV
Samsung Electronics is holding final talks with Google about launching a television using the US search giant’s software platform next year, an executive of the South Korean company said yesterday. Yoon Boo-keun, president of the visual display division, declined to elaborate on the timing of the launch, saying only that Samsung would not unveil the new model at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Samsung is the world’s largest maker of flat-screen televisions, but wants to offer more high-tech models such as smart TVs to boost profits amid global competition on prices.
FINANCE
Eksportfinans downgraded
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Norway’s Eksportfinans ASA to junk after the government last week took over the role of supporting the country’s export industry through loans. Moody’s said the cut followed the government’s decision not to allow Eksportfinans the freedom to sidestep EU capital requirements, preventing the company from concentrating large loans on single exposures. Moody’s downgraded Eksportfinans’s issuer and senior debt ratings to “Ba1” from “Aa3,” the rating company said in a statement yesterday.
ELECTRONICS
Ex-Olympus boss to return
The fired chief executive of Japan’s disgraced Olympus Corp says he has accepted an invitation to attend its board meeting this week, which could be a hopeful sign for investors who want him to return and lead a clean-up of the firm. Shares in the company jumped about 20 percent to ¥869 yesterday, as traders speculated the company might avoid being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, despite being engulfed in an accounting scandal. The trip will be his first to Olympus headquarters since he was fired at a board meeting just over five weeks ago.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained