HEALTH
Chain ends tobacco sales
CVS Caremark Corp will stop selling tobacco products at its 7,600 stores by Oct. 1, the company said on Wednesday, making it the first national drugstore chain in the US to take cigarettes off the shelves. Public health experts hailed the precedent-setting decision by the No. 2 US drugstore as a step that could pressure other retailers to follow suit. With pharmacies taking on a larger role in the US healthcare system with walk-in clinics and services such as managing health plans, many experts say they should no longer offer unhealthy products like tobacco. CVS expects the decision to hurt profits initially, along with a US$2 billion hit to annual sales. However, the company, whose Caremark unit is a pharmacy benefits manager for corporations and the US government’s Medicare program, believes the move will boost its appeal as a healthcare provider.
ECONOMY
Mexico’s rating upgraded
Mexico became only the second country in Latin America to earn a coveted “A” grade sovereign rating after Moody’s upgraded it on Wednesday, citing major economic reforms that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pushed through its congress. Mexican debt rallied and the peso currency also firmed after the upgrade, which should help to lower the country’s borrowing costs. The Moody’s Investors Service decision came after Pena Nieto broke through gridlock in a divided congress to push through Mexico’s most significant economic reforms since the NAFTA trade deal with the US and Canada in the 1990s. Moody’s upgraded Mexico’s sovereign rating to “A3” from “Baa1,” with a stable outlook. Only a few other emerging markets such as Chile, Poland and Malaysia have earned an “A” rating.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler reports strong Q4
Daimler AG, the third-largest maker of luxury vehicles, posted a 45 percent surge in fourth-quarter profit as customers scooped up the new Mercedes-Benz CLA coupe and revamped flagship S-Class sedan. Earnings before interest and taxes from ongoing operations rose to 2.53 billion euros (US$3.42 billion) from 1.74 billion euros a year earlier, the Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer said in a statement yesterday. That beat the 2.37 billion-euro average estimate of 15 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue gained 7.6 percent to 32.1 billion euros. Daimler today forecast a “significant” increase in this year’s operating profit from continuing operations on demand for the new GLA compact sport-utility vehicle and redesigned C-Class sedan, Mercedes’s best-selling model, coming to market later this year. Zetsche has vowed to regain the top spot in luxury-car sales by 2020.
BANKING
Bank misses estimates
Credit Suisse Group AG, the second-biggest Swiss bank, posted fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates after taking legal provisions related to US tax and mortgage matters. Net income was 267 million Swiss francs (US$295 million), the Zurich-based bank said yesterday in a statement. That compared with a SF263 million profit a year ago and a SF398 million average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Credit Suisse set aside SF514 million to cover potential costs related to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into whether the bank helped US clients evade taxes, as well as mortgage-related litigation. The bank had already put aside SF295 million in provisions for US tax matters in the third quarter of 2011.
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
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],”