COMPANIES
Google overtakes Microsoft
Google soared past Microsoft in terms of market value on Monday to become the second-richest firm in the tech world behind Apple. Google shares gained 0.96 percent to end at US$761.78, giving the Internet giant a market capitalization of US$249.1 billion. Microsoft meanwhile fell 0.91 percent to US$29.49, translating into a market worth of US$247.2 billion. Apple shed 1.16 percent to US$659.39, meaning its market cap is just above US$618 billion.
INDIA
Kingfisher grounds flights
Kingfisher Airlines has grounded flights for three days after a violent strike over unpaid wages at the cash-strapped carrier. The company said late on Monday that it was forced to declare a lockout after “unabated incidents of violence, criminal intimidation, assault” by disgruntled employees who have been intimidating their colleagues. Flights would be halted through tomorrow. Indian Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has warned Kingfisher over safety compliance since its engineers are on strike and said that the company must deploy at least five aircraft in its fleet in order to maintain its license, the Press Trust of India reported.
MINING
S&P warns over iron prices
Standard & Poor’s said yesterday that it saw little improvement in iron ore prices in the near term and warned that smaller single-commodity miners could see their ratings slip. S&P said a slowdown in China and sluggishness in Europe had seen iron ore prices dive from their peak of more than US$180 per tonne to below US$90 per tonne in the past two months. Prices had rebounded to between US$100 and US$110, but S&P said it “doesn’t expect iron ore prices to climb much further in the near term” and warned that “substantially debt-laden” miners could come under pressure.
SPAIN
Unemployment rises
The number of people registered as unemployed rose by a little under 80,000 last month as the summer tourism season came to an end. The Labor Ministry says the total number of people registered as jobless is now 4.71 million. The country is in its second recession in three years with an overall unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent. It is debating whether to seek a bailout for its economy similar to those already granted to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
SOUTH KOREA
Focus on economic growth
The central bank said yesterday it would focus its monetary policy on boosting economic growth, raising prospects of an interest rate cut as new data pointed to a deepening manufacturing slump. The Bank of Korea “plans to operate the rate policy to ensure that the economy recovers its potential level of growth,” the bank said in its biannual monetary policy report. Inflation accelerated to 2 percent last month, but remained below the central bank’s 3 percent target ceiling, paving the way for a rate cut as early as next week, analysts said.
UNITED STATES
Manufacturing picks up
Manufacturing grew for the first time in four months, buoyed by a jump in new orders and more jobs. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said on Monday that its index of factory activity rose to 51.5. That is up from 49.6 in August. A reading above 50 signals growth. The index had been below that threshold from June through August.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”