CHINA
PMI level prompts warning
Manufacturing activity stagnated this month, British banking giant HSBC said yesterday, warning of “significant” pressures on the world’s second-largest economy as its key purchasing managers’ index (PMI) hit a six-month low. HSBC’s preliminary PMI for the month came in at the 50 breakeven point dividing expansion and contraction, the bank said in a statement. It was lower than last month’s 50.4 and was the weakest reading since May’s 49.4, according to the HSBC survey, compiled by information services provider Markit. HSBC said protracted easing in new export order growth led output to contract for the first time in six months, while lingering deflationary pressures suggested domestic demand remained insufficient.
JAPAN
Trade deficit narrows
The trade deficit narrowed by more than a third year-on-year last month, helped by higher exports and lower oil prices, official data showed yesterday. The deficit came to ¥709.9 billion (US$6 billion) against the year-before shortfall of ¥1,100.4 billion, logging a drop of 35.5 percent, the Ministry of Finance said. Exports rose 9.6 percent to ¥6.7 trillion, chalking up the strongest growth in eight months on higher shipments of cars, ships and steel. Overall imports increased 2.7 percent to ¥7.4 trillion. Oil imports fell 10.8 percent, partly reflecting lower prices.
UNITED STATES
Fed sees risk to growth
Federal Reserve policymakers saw a potential threat to US growth from the global slowdown and a possible decrease in inflation in their last meeting, according to the minutes published on Wednesday. However, they also said a sharp fall in oil prices would likely bring relief to Americans and boost overall consumption, supporting the economy. The solid gains in the labor market underpinned a general sense of confidence among attendees at the Sept. 28 and Sept. 29 meeting of the Federal Open Maker Committee, which took the momentous step of drawing a close to its crisis-era qualitative easing stimulus program.
UNITED STATES
Casino plans abandoned
A Toronto-based company abandoned its plan to buy the former Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Wednesday, dealing another blow to a city reeling from a string of casino closures and the disappearance of thousands of jobs. Brookfield Asset Management said in a brief statement that it had “terminated the Revel acquisition.” The company planned to buy the casino for US$110 million from bankruptcy court. Its withdrawal could pave the way for Florida developer Glenn Straub to acquire the former casino.
UNITED KINGDOM
Regulators fine RBS
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) was fined £56 million (US$88 million) by British regulators for the 2012 collapse of its computer system that left millions of customers without access to their accounts for weeks. Britain’s largest taxpayer-owned bank will pay the Financial Conduct Authority £42 million and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority £14 million to settle probes into the incident, the regulators said yesterday. RBS chief executive officer Ross McEwan, 57, said the bank will invest £750 million over three years to improve the computer system as part of his plan to return the 80 percent taxpayer-owned lender to full private ownership.
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],”