UNITED STATES
Industrial output surges
Industrial output surged 1.1 percent last month powered by manufacturing, where the automobile sector drove a fourth consecutive monthly gain, the Federal Reserve reported on Monday. The rebound came after a narrow contraction in October, and was also helped by a jump in utility output due to colder-than-average weather last month, the Fed said. The manufacturing sector gained 0.6 percent in the month, and utilities 3.9 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
Europe’s new car sales rise
European new car sales rose a third consecutive month last month, the longest period of gains in four years, as demand for autos from Volkswagen AG and Renault SA contributed to signs that an industrywide decline is ending. Registrations for last month increased 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 975,281 vehicles, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said yesterday in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY
Google buys robot firm
Big Dog, a four-legged robot that can climb muddy hills, and Cheetah, a robot which can outrun the fastest human, are among the robots that now belong to Google Inc. The world’s largest Internet search company acquired Boston Dynamics, a privately held company best known for building robots that look as if they belong in a science-fiction movie and which are often co-developed or funded by the US military. The acquisition is the latest by Google’s secretive robotics division, led by Andy Rubin, the former boss of the company’s Android mobile operating system. Google’s new robotics division has acquired more than a half-dozen other robotics companies.
INVESTMENT
JPMorgan unit up for sale
JPMorgan Chase & Co is seeking to sell a global investment unit in a push to simplify operations by paring non-essential holdings, a person familiar with the matter said. JPMorgan began offering its Global Special Opportunities unit, which has about US$2 billion in assets, to potential buyers in the past few weeks, the person said. Private-equity firms Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and KKR & Co among possible bidders for the business, which could fetch US$1 billion, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.
MEXICO
State oil monopoly broken
The government’s controversial energy reform breaking a 75-year national oil monopoly will be enacted immediately now that a majority of states have approved it, the president said on Monday. A standing committee in the Congress still has to approve the change, designed to lure foreign investment, but this is expected in a matter of days “and once it happens I will promulgate the reform immediately,” President Enrique Pena Nieto said during a visit to Turkey, according to a statement from his office.
UNITED STATES
Woman to chair Lockheed
Defense giant Lockheed Martin on Monday announced that chief executive Marillyn Hewson is to take over as chairperson of the Pentagon contractor in January. Hewson, who became the first female chief executive at Lockheed in January, is to assume the top spot on the board with the retirement of current chairman Robert Stevens.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained