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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure