AUTOMAKERS
Toyota leads world
Toyota shrugged off China sales woes to stay the world’s top-selling automaker for the first half of this year, outpacing US rival General Motors (GM), which boasted such bragging rights for seven decades until 2008.
Toyota Motor Corp sold 4.91 million cars and trucks around the world for the January-June period, down 1.2 percent from the previous year, according to numbers it released yesterday. GM said earlier this month it sold 4.85 million vehicles worldwide in the six months.
ICELAND
S&P downgrades outlook
Standard & Poor has revised the outlook for Iceland’s long-term credit rating to negative from stable on Friday, advising the government against pursuing a plan for massive mortgage relief. The credit rating agency said its move was based on an estimate that there was “at least a one-in-three chance” that it could lower Iceland’s ratings within the next two years.
FOOD AND DRINKS
Starbucks profits rise
Starbucks says its profit climbed 25 percent in the latest quarter as caffeine-addicted customers helped boost sales and its coffee costs eased. The results topped Wall Street expectations and the company raised its full-year guidance. Starbucks’ shares were up almost 7 percent in aftermarket trading. The Seattle-based chain, which has more than 19,000 locations around the world, said global sales rose 8 percent at cafes open at least 13 months, with all regions registering growth. In its flagship US market, the figure rose 9 percent.
BOOKS
Amazon posts Q2 loss
Amazon.com reported a surprise loss in the second quarter, as a 22 percent jump in revenue was not enough to make up for rising operating expenses. The world’s largest online retailer has been spending heavily on order fulfilment and digital content rights, which continue to weigh on profit margins. Amazon, which also makes the Kindle tablets and e-reader devices, said on Thursday that its loss was US$7 million, or 2 cents per share, in the April-June quarter. That is down from earnings of US$7 million, or 1 cent per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 22 percent to US$15.7 billion from US$12.83 billion.
GAMES
Zynga shares tumble
Social games pioneer Zynga reported Thursday that it lost money and players in the last quarter, sending it already struggling shares tumbling. Zynga said that it lost US$15.8 million on revenue that shrank 38 percent from a year earlier to US$230.7 million. Meanwhile, the number of people playing Zynga games daily plunged 45 percent from last year to 39 million, according to the company. The number of monthly active users was down 39 percent to 187 million in a year-over-year comparison.
MOBILE PHONES
Qualcomm optimistic
Leading mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday that the next generation of smartphones will take another stride forward as the company reported robust quarterly earnings. “We still think the next smartphone is going to surprise you with the things it can do,” Qualcomm director of CPU product management Travis Lanier said. “There is a way to go in innovation.” The California-based company made a profit of US$1.58 billion on revenue of US$6.52 billion in the quarter that ended on June 30. Profit was up 21 percent from the same quarter last year, while revenue increased 35 percent.
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
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
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
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