INTERNET
Facebook shares hit low
Facebook Inc shares slid below US$29 to a new low on Tuesday as nervous investors fled the company’s shares, concerned about the social network’s long-term business prospects and an initial offering price that proved too rich. Shares of the No. 1 social network fell 10 percent to an all-time low of US$28.65, before recovering slightly to US$29.01. Since its market debut on May 18, the eight-year-old company has shed approximately US$25 billion in value — roughly equivalent to the market capitalization of Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter of Facebook’s IPO.
UNITED STATES
Little confidence in economy
Americans’ confidence in their economy suffered the biggest drop in eight months as worries about the weak jobs, housing and stock markets rattled them again. The Conference Board, a private research group, said on Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 64.9, down from a revised 68.7 in April. With gas prices falling, the public was expected to push the measure to 70, according to analysts polled by FactSet. This month’s figure represents the biggest drop since October last year, when the measure fell about 6 points.
SOUTH KOREA
Current account surplus falls
The nation’s current account surplus declined last month from a four-month high in March due to weaker exports as concerns grew about a global slowdown, the central bank said yesterday. The surplus in the current account — the broadest measure of international trade — was US$1.78 billion last month compared to a revised US$2.97 billion in March and a US$1.28 billion surplus a year earlier. Exports were worth US$45.88 billion in April, down from US$47.38 billion in March, the central bank said.
BRAZIL
Rate cut anticipated
The central bank was set to cut its base rate by half a point to a historic low of 8.5 percent yesterday in a fresh bid to boost the country’s sluggish economic growth, according to analysts. The cut, which would be seventh in the past 10 months, comes as the world’s sixth-largest economy struggles to stave off contagion from the eurozone debt crisis. Last week, Finance Minister Guido Mantega told the Senate the official growth forecast was being revised downward to 4 percent GDP from 4.5 percent despite the unveiling of a new stimulus package.
BANKING
Santander sells stake in unit
Spain’s Santander bank, the biggest in the eurozone by market value, yesterday said it had sold a 51 percent stake in its Colombian offshoots for US$624 million. Profits from the sale would go to strengthening the bank’s balance sheet, it said in a statement. The bank had announced in December last year an agreement to sell its subsidiaries Banco Santander Colombia and Santander Investment Trust Colombia to Chilean group Corpbanca for US$1.225 billion.
GREECE
Euro exit would be costly
An exit from the euro would see Greeks lose more than half their annual income and prompt a dramatic rise in unemployment and inflation, a report from the National Bank of Greece warned. The study was published on Tuesday as the nation heads to new general elections on June 17, amid Europe-wide concern of broader financial turmoil if its place in the single currency is threatened by a victory for an anti-austerity party.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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