CHINA
Banks allowed to lend more
The government has told its banks to issue more loans in the final months of this year and has relaxed limits on loan-to-deposit ratios to help hit a record new lending target as Beijing steps up efforts to lift flagging economic growth. Two sources with knowledge of the matter said the central bank would now allow banks to lend an unprecedented 10 trillion yuan (US$1.62 trillion) for the whole year, up from what Chinese media have said was a previous target of 9.5 trillion yuan. The People’s Bank of China is also allowing banks to lend more than 75 percent of their deposits, injecting flexibility to a rule that was meant to control lending activity.
AUSTRALIA
Unemployment at a high
The nation’s jobless rate hit a 12-year high last month, data showed yesterday, as more people looked for jobs in a softening economy hurt by falling commodity prices and weak Chinese demand. Unemployment edged up to 6.3 percent as 42,700 jobs were added to the economy, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. The figure is up from 5.8 percent a year earlier. Full-time positions increased by 1,800 as part-time employment soared 40,800, with the data slightly stronger than economists’ expectations of 15,000 jobs created.
INTERNET
Spain’s Google News to shut
Google said on Wednesday it would shut down Google News in Spain because of a new law that would force it to pay news outlets whose content it publishes, partially or in whole. Google News is to close in Spain on Tuesday because of the law, which takes effect next month. “Sadly, as a result of a new Spanish law, we’ll shortly have to close Google News in Spain,” Google News director Richard Gingras wrote on a company blog. The Spanish measure is part of an intellectual property rights law that was adopted by parliament in October.
BANKING
Bank hits US$1 tn milestone
Goldman Sachs Group Inc has surpassed US$1 trillion in mergers and acquisitions for a single year for the first time since the financial crisis. The US investment bank passed the closely watched benchmark for this year following transactions this week, according to data released on Wednesday from Dealogic. Goldman’s latest big deal was Merck & Co’s US$9.5 billion takeover of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc, unveiled on Monday. Goldman has also worked on the US$66 billion purchase of Botox-maker Allergan Inc by Activis PLC and the US$48.5 billion acquisition by AT&T Inc of DirecTV Inc.
RETAIL
EBay jobs might go: WSJ
US online retail giant eBay might slash thousands of jobs early next year as it prepares to separate from PayPal to become an independent company, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday. Approximately 3,000 jobs — about 10 percent of the total workforce — could be affected, sources close to the company told the newspaper. The cuts may be in the marketplace division, which includes eBay.com and StubHub, according to the WSJ. An eBay spokeswoman did not confirm or deny the news, instead saying that the company is focused on ensuring the success of the new business once the split is complete.
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],”