TECHNOLOGY
Strong dollar hits profit: HP
Hewlett-Packard (HP) chief executive Meg Whitman said she thought the company did almost everything well in its most recent fiscal quarter — except make money. HP shares tumbled about 7 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after the release of first-quarter earnings that showed drops in revenue and net income, and flat-to-lower sales in almost all areas. The problem for HP was a sharp rise in the value of the US dollar, Whitman said. “Currency headwinds,” she said. “In the past three months we lost US$1.5 billion in operating profit to the stronger dollar.” Whitman lowered the company’s forecast earnings for the year by about 7 percent. For the quarter ending Jan. 30, HP reported revenue of US$26.8 billion, a fall of 5 percent from the previous year. Net earnings were US$1.4 billion, down 4 percent.
METALS
BHP worried about price war
The first fractures are appearing in an iron ore price war that is putting more producers out of business. The biggest miners — BHP Billiton Ltd, Rio Tinto Group and Vale SA — have persisted with multibillion-dollar expansion plans, citing still-healthy earnings even in the wake of a price collapse. Now, for the first time, one of the big three has voiced concern they may have gone too far. “I do fear that other competitors have an awful lot more capital waiting in the wings to invest in expanding,” BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie told analysts on a conference call on Tuesday after reporting a 35 percent decline in underlying profit from his iron-ore division. “We do look to the future and see a degree of pressure downwards on iron ore prices.”
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla tops US best car list
Consumer Reports named the luxury electric Tesla S its top car for the second straight year, calling the sedan a “technological tour de force.” The annual top-10 ranking, based on independent road performance, reliability and crash tests, also gave top category honors to three Subaru models, a landmark sweep for the small Japanese maker. However, the Japanese overall won just six slots, their lowest tally since the influential consumer ratings magazine began the list 19 years ago. Instead, three US brands — the Tesla, the Buick Regal and the Chevrolet Impala — held their own in the top 10. Consumer Reports praised the ability to update the Tesla’s software over the Internet, and that the company surmounted early technical problems, including a few fires that started after objects on roads hit underside battery packs.
REAL ESTATE
Australia to tax foreigners
Australia plans to charge fees to foreign nationals buying residential property and fine those who break foreign-investment laws in an bid to cool one of the world’s hottest property markets, but experts doubt it will make housing more affordable. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey on Tuesday said he hoped to raise about A$200 million (US$157 million) a year by charging foreign homebuyers A$5,000 for properties valued under A$1 million and another A$10,000 for every additional A$1 million. The government is also to set up a register of foreign nationals buying real estate and fine lawbreakers by up to a quarter of the value of the property and force them to sell, Hockey added. Australia’s foreign investment review board says China was the No. 1 source of foreign capital investment in real estate in 2013, with nearly A$6 billion of approved investments, up 41 percent from the previous year.
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