INDIA
Industrial output up 8.2%
India’s industrial output climbed by a surprising 8.2 percent from a year ago in October, data showed yesterday. The figures marked a big improvement from a revised contraction of 0.7 percent in September and far outpaced market expectations of a 5 percent rise, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll. The increase was helped by a weak base in October last year, when production contracted 5 percent, but output of consumer goods climbed 13.2 percent, suggesting improving demand.
MACHINERY
Japan orders rise 2.6%
Japan’s machinery orders rose for the first time in three months, a sign that companies may expect the world’s third-largest economy to return to growth next year. Orders, an indicator of capital spending, climbed 2.6 percent in October from the previous month, Japan’s Cabinet Office said yesterday. The median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 3 percent increase. Large orders can cause volatile results. Orders from the auto industry rose 17.8 percent, the first rise in five months.
CHEMICALS
DuPont predicts profit rise
Chemicals giant DuPont Co said on Tuesday it should reach the high end of its net income guidance this year and profit will grow in the low to mid-single digits next year. The company added that it planned to buy back up to US$1 billion of its shares next year. DuPont has forecast net income of between US$3.25 and US$3.30 per share from continuing operations this year. The company says sales will grow in the low single digits next year. DuPont expects weaker results from its performance chemicals unit and solid growth from other businesses.
AUTOMAKERS
Peugeot to cut 1,500 jobs
French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen is to shed an additional 1,500 positions by not replacing departing workers, on top of 8,000 job cuts already announced, union sources said on Tuesday. After a meeting with management, union sources said the company would cut 11,214 jobs in total by the middle of 2014, including the 8,000 announced in July and the 1,500 non-replaced workers. The rest will come from voluntary departures. Peugeot this summer announced it planned to cut 8,000 jobs.
ELECTRONICS
LG falls on Apple rumors
LG Display Co’s shares declined in Seoul trading on speculation Apple Inc may introduce an upgraded iPhone 5 version earlier than expected, potentially cutting the South Korean company’s shipments for the existing model. Shares of the world’s second-largest LCD maker slipped 4.9 percent to 32,700 won at the close on the Korea Exchange, its steepest loss since June 4. LG Display spokeswoman Claire Ohm declined to comment. LG Display shares have climbed 33 percent this year, compared with a 8.2 percent gain in the benchmark KOSPI.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Milner funds 23andMe
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who backed companies ranging from Facebook Inc to gaming company Zynga Inc, has led a US$50 million funding round into 23andMe, a US company that helps people decipher their genetic makeup. Existing investors joining the funding round include chief executive Anne Wojcicki; Sergey Brin, Wojcicki’s husband and cofounder of Google Inc; New Enterprise Associates; Google Ventures; and MPM Capital.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by