AUSTRALIA
Inflation lower than expected
The government said yesterday inflation rose a weaker-than-expected 0.1 percent in the March quarter, fueling speculation the central bank will cut interest rates next week. The Consumer Price Index had been expected to rise 0.6 percent for the quarter and analysts said the disappointing figure essentially locked in a stimulatory rate cut when the Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday next week.
FRANCE
Consumer confidence climbs
Consumer confidence unexpectedly climbed for a second month this month on optimism that a 10-month rise in joblessness is slowing. Household sentiment improved to 88 from 87 last month, national statistics office Insee said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Economists expected a reading of 87, according to the median of 14 estimates gathered by Bloomberg News.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Toshiba plans Thai factory
Toshiba said yesterday it would build a new chip factory in Thailand to replace one hit by record flooding last year that hammered Japanese manufacturers operating in the nation. The plant, scheduled to start production by the middle of next year, will be built in Prachinburi Province, about 140km northeast of Bangkok on a site with no major rivers nearby, Toshiba said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Novartis earnings drop 18%
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG has reported an 18 percent drop in earnings for the first quarter. Novartis said its net profit fell to US$2.33 billion from US$2.82 billion in the same period last year. The Basel-based company said in a statement yesterday that profits were affected by strong competition in the generic drugs market and manufacturing problems at a plant in Nebraska.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TI expects to beat estimates
Texas Instruments Inc (TI) forecast second-quarter revenue growth ahead of Wall Street estimates, signaling the end of a prolonged inventory-related decline in demand. The maker of chips used in everything from communications equipment to cars forecast current-quarter revenue of between US$3.22 billion and US$3.48 billion. This implies a mid-point above analyst expectations for US$3.29 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
SOFTWARE
Xbox infringes patent: ITC
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Monday issued a preliminary ruling that Microsoft infringed on Motorola Mobility patents in its hit Xbox 360 videogame consoles. Administrative law judge David Shaw backed four out of five Motorola claims that the company’s intellectual property was usurped in Xbox software for tasks such as efficiently moving video files or connecting wirelessly to the Internet.
UNITED STATES
Steel wire duties rejected
A trade panel on Monday rejected proposed duties on steel wire from China and Mexico after determining domestic producers were not harmed or threatened by the imports. The International Trade Commission voted 4-2 to deny duties in the case filed last year by steel wire companies in California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan and Oklahoma. The panel also denied duties last week in two other cases involving refrigerators from South Korea and Mexico and steel wheels from China.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure