HOUSING
US housing starts jump
US housing starts jumped last month and building permits hit their highest level in nearly six years, offering hope that the troubled US housing market could be stabilizing. A separate report on Friday showed consumer sentiment falling this month on worries over income growth, tempering the housing data’s upbeat signal on the economy. Groundbreaking for homes surged 13.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.07 million units, the highest since November last year, the US Commerce Department said. The increase, which marked a rebound from a cold winter that had weighed on activity, was driven by starts on multifamily housing.
INVESTMENT
Insider trader sentenced
A US federal judge on Friday sentenced Michael Steinberg, a former portfolio manager for SAC Capital, to 42 months in prison following his conviction for insider trading. US Judge Richard Sullivan imposed a sentence longer than the 24 months sought by Steinberg’s attorneys, but shorter than the 63 to 78 months prosecutors had argued for. A New York jury in December last year convicted Steinberg after concluding he garnered about US$1.9 million in illegal profits through insider information about Dell and other technology companies that was relayed to SAC through a chain of business contacts, some of whom received money for the tips. One of eight ex-SAC employees now convicted of insider trading, Steinberg was close to SAC founder Steven Cohen, whose firm in November last year pleaded guilty to insider trading and paid SU$1.8 billion in penalties. Cohen has not been charged criminally.
MINING
Rio would consider offers
Rio Tinto is not actively seeking to divest assets this year, but would consider any attractive offers, company chief executive Sam Walsh said on Friday. The world’s third-largest miner, has been divesting assets that it no longer considers core. Speculation has centered on coal operations in Mozambique, South Africa and Australia, but Walsh said there were no firm plans. “If somebody comes along with a large checkbook and makes an attractive offer, of course we’ll consider that ... but we are not out in the market seeking for people to buy our assets,” he told reporters. “We have no need to divest any assets during 2014; we are focusing on the final work to get our balance sheet back in strength.”
ACQUISITIONS
France called protectionist
The leading US business group on Friday called France protectionist, after Paris asserted its right to veto any foreign takeover of key French companies. The US Chamber of Commerce said the move by Paris, announced on Thursday as US industrial giant General Electric presses to buy a division of France’s Alstom, would not help the country’s economy. The new rules, which came into effect on Friday, allow the government the final say over whether a foreign company can take over a French firm in the key sectors of energy, transport, water, health and telecommunications. French Minister of Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg called it a move of “economic patriotism.” “These protective measures on France’s strategic interests are a renewal of our powers,” he told Le Monde newspaper.
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