E-COMMERCE
Amazon earns US$7m in Q2
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings of US$7 million, or US$0.01 per share, that matched Wall Street’s meager expectations, but revenue grew 29 percent to US$12.83 billion from a year ago, short of the US$12.9 billion expected by analysts. Sales of digital goods, such as Kindle e-books, music and movies, rose 13 percent to US$4.12 billion, while sales of electronics and other items rose 38 percent to US$8.16 billion. The Seattle-based company said it expected third-quarter revenue to grow between 19 percent and 31 percent from a year ago. That amounts to sales of US$12.9 billion to US$14.3 billion.
CATERING
Starbucks cuts Q3 outlook
Starbucks Corp on Thursday reported second-quarter net income that fell short of Wall Street expectations and cut its outlook for the current quarter, citing the challenging global economy. The Seattle-based coffee giant said net income rose 19 percent to US$333.1 million, or US$0.43 per share during the quarter from a year ago, as global revenue at cafes which have been open at least a year rose 6 percent, driven mainly by growth in China and Asia, and the Americas. For the current quarter, Starbucks cut its profit outlook to US$.044 to US$0.45 per share from a range of between US$0.46 and US$0.47 per share.
JAPAN
Consumer prices fall 0.2%
Consumer prices in the country fell 0.2 percent year-on-year last month, a decrease for the second consecutive month, the internal affairs ministry said yesterday. The reading for the core index, which excludes volatile food items, was slightly worse than the 0.1 percent drop some economists had expected. The country has been in deflation for years, with a series of monetary and fiscal policy moves failing to reverse the trend. Core consumer prices for the Tokyo metropolitan area, a leading indicator of price trends for the rest of the country, fell 0.6 percent this month from the same month a year ago, official figures showed.
FRANCE
Consumer confidence falls
Consumer confidence fell unexpectedly this month to its lowest level since February in the face of growing fears about unemployment as a slew of companies unveil plans for major layoffs, a survey showed yesterday. The INSEE official statistics office said that its consumer confidence index fell to 87 this month from 89 last month. Last month’s figure was also revised down from 90 originally. The reading, well below the long-term average of 100, fell short of expectations in a Reuters poll of 16 economists that had indicated an average forecast of 90.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford recalls Escape SUVs
Ford Motor Co is recalling 484,600 older-model Escape SUVs, most of them in the US, because their throttles can be stuck open, US safety regulators said. Ford Escapes from the 2001-2004 model years with 3 liter, V6 engines are affected by the recall. A week ago, Ford recalled about 11,500 new 2013 model year Escape SUVs with 1.6 liter EcoBoost engines because of a fire risk that was related to fuel lines. The issue involves the cruise control cable on the Escapes and safety regulators are investigating whether it was a factor in the death of a teenager in Arizona earlier this year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last