GERMANY
Jobless total hits 2.96m
Unemployment rose more than four times as much as economists estimated this months as the euro area sovereign debt crisis and a long winter took their toll on Europe’s largest economy. The number of people out of work climbed a seasonally adjusted 21,000 to 2.96 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said yesterday. That is the fourth straight monthly gain. The adjusted jobless rate held at 6.9 percent, just above a two- decade low of 6.8 percent.
ENERGY
Russia, Japan sign deal
Japan and Russia yesterday signed a deal that will see them jointly explore and develop a potentially lucrative oil and gas field off the Russian coast. Japanese firm Inpex Corp and Russia’s Rosneft state oil giant agreed to work together on the reserve, estimated to hold around 3.4 billion barrels of oil, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, off the Russian state of Magadan. That reserve equates to around three years’ worth of oil imports for resource-strapped Japan.
INTERNET
EU pushes Google on search
The EU’s antitrust chief said on Tuesday that Google Inc will have to offer more changes to the way it displays search results to settle a pending case. The period to examine Google’s proposals has been extended by one month and his office will ask Google with “almost 100 percent” certainty next month to do yet more, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told the European Parliament. Google’s search engine enjoys a near-monopoly in Europe with a market share of above 90 percent. The EU commission, the 27-nation bloc’s antitrust authority, has been investigating since 2010 whether Google is abusing its dominant market position.
SINGAPORE
DBS offers yuan bonds
DBS Group Holdings Ltd is marketing yuan-denominated bonds in Singapore after HSBC Holdings PLC and Standard Chartered PLC sold the city-state’s first offshore notes in the Chinese currency earlier this week. DBS is considering offering three-year securities to yield about 2.70 percent, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. HSBC sold 500 million yuan (US$82 million) of two-year debt at 2.25 percent, while Standard Chartered priced 1 billion yuan of three-year notes at 2.625 percent on May 27.
UNITED STATES
Wal-Mart fined US$81.6m
Wal-Mart Stores Inc will pay US$81.6 million after pleading guilty to criminal charges of improperly disposing of fertilizer, pesticides and other hazardous products that were pulled from stores in two states because of damaged packaging and other problems. The world’s largest retailer entered the plea in federal court in California to misdemeanor counts of violating the Clean Water Act and another environmental law regulating pesticides. In Missouri, the company pleaded guilty to improperly handling pesticides.
UNITED STATES
Moody’s upbeat on banking
Moody’s Investors Services has raised its outlook for the US banking industry for the first time in five years, citing the improving economy and banks’ stronger balance sheets. The rating agency said in a report issued on Tuesday that sustained economic growth and a better jobs picture will help banks over the next 12 to 18 months. Moody’s raised its outlook for the industry to “stable” from “negative.” It had been “negative” since 2008, the year the financial crisis struck.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San