TRADE
Russia tables US trade deal
Russia on Wednesday proposed a series of bilateral trade negotiations with the US under the umbrella of a hoped-for new trade agenda between the two countries, a senior Russian official said. He said that the idea of establishing a framework for talks that could lead to up to five separate deals — beginning with a pact on investment — was floated during a meeting between Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and US Trade Representative Michael Froman on Wednesday.
CENTRAL BANKING
South Korea, NZ hold rates
The Bank of Korea yesterday kept its key interest rate unchanged at 2.5 percent for the seventh straight month as the South Korean economy shows signs of a moderate recovery, while inflation remains tame. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the official cash rate unchanged at a record low of 2.5 percent, but signaled that it would rise “as needed” to keep inflation in check, citing the high New Zealand dollar, a robust housing market and strong demand for the country’s agricultural commodities.
AUSTRALIA
Joblessness on the rise
The unemployment rate climbed to 5.8 percent last month as the nation’s mining-fueled boom fades, but analysts said it was unlikely to spark an interest rate cut. The outcome was 0.1 percentage points higher than in October and in line with expectations, with the number of unemployed increasing by 3,400. The labor participation rate was steady at 64.8 percent, its lowest level since October 2006.
STOCKS
Facebook to join S&P 500
Facebook is to join the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, replacing technology supplier Teradyne Inc, while Abercrombie & Fitch is downgraded from the benchmark index. S&P Dow Jones Indices on Wednesday announced a broader reshuffling of several of its market trackers, effective after the close of trading on Friday next week. Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook Inc have surged 86 percent this year. The company is also joining the S&P 100 index.
AIRLINES
Air Canada orders Boeings
Air Canada announced on Wednesday it had placed a firm US$6.5 billion order for 61 Boeing Co’s 737 MAX narrow-body aircraft, with options on 18 more planes and purchase rights for 30 others. The order — which comes as the airline seeks to replace its aging Airbus A320 and A321 fleet — concerns 33 of the MAX 8 version of the 737 and 28 of the MAX 9 aircraft, with substitution rights between them, as well as for 737 MAX 7 aircraft. Deliveries for the Boeing order are due to begin with two aircraft in 2017, with 16 the following year, 18 in 2019, 16 in 2020 and nine in 2021.
INTERNET
Yahoo Mail still down
An outage at Yahoo Mail stretched into its second day on Wednesday, prompting the US Internet pioneer to apologize to unhappy users. Yahoo would not disclose the number of e-mail accounts knocked out of service since late on Monday night California time. Jeffrey Bonforte, Yahoo’s senior vice president of communication products, said in a short message posted on microblogging site Tumblr that the outage was caused by a “hardware problem” at one of the company’s data centers.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last