GERMANY
Fitch affirms ‘AAA’ rating
International credit rating agency Fitch affirmed yesterday the top-notch triple-A rating on Germany’s sovereign debt and said the outlook was stable. “Germany continues to have the components of a declining public debt path. The economy is growing, the budget position is relatively favorable and nominal interest rates are low,” Fitch said in a statement. The ratio of general government debt to GDP “has already started to fall in Germany, unlike its ‘AAA’-rated eurozone peers” and Britain and the US, the rating agency said. Fitch estimated that Germany’s debt ratio eased to about 79.4 percent last year from 81 percent in 2012. As Europe’s paymaster, Germany has been the biggest contributor to the bailout programs for its struggling neighbors, but that financial burden is continuing to ease “on improved regional governance, economic recovery and policy of the European Central Bank,” Fitch said.
RETAIL
Malware still a threat
The FBI has warned US retailers to prepare for more cyberattacks after discovering about 20 hacking cases in the past year that involved the same kind of malicious software used against Target Corp in the holiday shopping season. The FBI distributed a confidential, three-page report to retail companies last week describing the risks posed by “memory-parsing” malware that infects point-of-sale systems, which include cash registers and credit-card swiping machines found in store checkout aisles. “We believe POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms’ actions to mitigate it,” the report said.
RETAIL
Starbucks sales disappoint
Starbucks Corp, the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, posted first-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ projections as weakening consumer confidence and more online holiday shopping slowed US growth. Revenue in the three months ended Dec. 29 last year rose 12 percent to US$4.24 billion, the Seattle-based company said yesterday in a statement. Analysts projected US$4.29 billion on average. Net income climbed 25 percent, topping analysts’ estimates. Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz is pushing higher-quality baked goods and opening Teavana stores across the Americas to try to maintain sales growth. Sales at stores open at least 13 months rose 5 percent in the Americas region, which includes the US, Canada and Latin America. That trailed the 8 percent gain in the fiscal fourth quarter and the 6.4 percent average estimate of analysts compiled by Consensus Metrix. Net income increased to US$540.7 million, or earnings per share of US$0.71, from US$432.2 million, or US$0.57, the previous year. Analysts estimated US$0.69 a share, the average of 29 projections showed.
SINGAPORE
House prices edge lower
Singapore’s fourth-quarter house prices slid for the first time in almost two years, trimming annual gains to the smallest since 2008 as mortgage curbs cooled prices. The private residential property price index fell 0.9 percent in the three months ended last month, more than the 0.8 percent drop based on preliminary data announced on Jan. 2. The decline in suburban housing values was 1 percent, more than the 0.6 percent slide in the earlier report, according to a government statement yesterday. “The data means that in the last three weeks of December, the price decline accelerated in the suburban market,” executive director at property consultants SLP Singapore Nicholas Mak said.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six