TECHNOLOGY
Cisco posts income rise
Cisco Systems Inc’s net income jumped 14 percent in the latest quarter as revenue at all four of its divisions rose for the first time in a year-and-a-half. Cisco earned US$2.5 billion, or US$0.46 per share, in its fiscal third quarter, which ended on April 27. That is up from the US$2.2 billion, or US$0.40 per share, it posted a year ago. Excluding one-time items, Cisco earned US$0.51 per share in the latest quarter and its revenue increased 5 percent to US$12.2 billion from US$11.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected US$0.49 per share and US$12.2 billion in revenue. The networking equipment company’s net income and revenue beat Wall Street’s expectations and its stock gained US$1.21, or 5.7 percent, to US$22.42 in aftermarket trading after the release of the numbers.
COMPANIES
Toyota dethrones Samsung
Toyota Motor Corp has accelerated past South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co to become Asia’s biggest company by market value, after the value of the Japanese automaker’s shares doubled in the past year. Toyota’s market capitalization stood at ¥22.23 trillion (US$217 billion) yesterday, beating out the smartphone and tablet computer giant, which was worth the equivalent of ¥20.32 trillion. Toyota, also the world’s biggest automaker, has seen its shares jump on the back of improving financial results. Toyota last week said its full-year net profit more than tripled.
NEW ZEALAND
Auckland lifts spending
The government bucked the international trend toward austerity budgets yesterday by lifting spending modestly, while still predicting its books will be back in the black within two years. Minister of Finance Bill English said that after taking a battering from the global financial crisis and the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, prospects were looking good for the country’s economy. English said the farm-reliant economy, which generates NZ$140 billion (US$115 billion) a year, was set to expand 2.3 percent this year and next year, and growth was expected to continue through at least 2015 to 2016. He said the figure would have been closer to 3 percent if not for an ongoing drought.
UNITED STATES
Factory output falls
The nation’s factory output dropped last month and manufacturing activity in New York State contracted this month, a sign that slowing global demand is weighing on the economy. Manufacturing production fell 0.4 percent last month after declining 0.3 percent in March, the Federal Reserve said. That pushed overall industrial output down by 0.5 percent. The drop in factory output, which accounts for more than 70 percent of industrial production, was broad-based and in keeping with data earlier this month that showed factory payrolls failed to expand last month.
FINANCE
JPMorgan seek records
Lawyers for JPMorgan Chase & Co are asking financial news and data company Bloomberg LP to turn over any records it has of reporters looking up the log-in and usage data of JPMorgan employees. A person familiar with the matter said a formal letter was sent this week. The person said the letter seeks data going back to 2008 as the bank examines whether the seller of ubiquitous trading data terminals was in breach of contract. It comes after the revelation on Friday that, until recently, Bloomberg reporters had special access to client usage data and sought to use it to break stories.
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
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
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
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