AUSTRALIA
Consumer prices rise 0.2%
Consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in the three months to last month, data showed yesterday, with the annual headline inflation rate softening to give the central bank room to cut interest rates. The slight rise in the consumer price index for the first quarter of this year took the annual rate of inflation to 1.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Statistics. Headline inflation also grew 0.2 percent in the previous quarter. However, the annual rate of growth slowed from 1.7 percent for the three months to December last year.
CANADA
Government reports surplus
Canada posted its first budget surplus since the global economic downturn on Tuesday, lifting the re-election hopes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories in six months. Despite the recent oil price plunge’s drag on government revenue of this major energy exporting nation, Ottawa projected a C$1.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) surplus in fiscal 2015-2016. That was up from a record deficit of C$55.6 billion at the height of the Great Recession in fiscal 2008-2009. The surplus is expected to grow in each subsequent year, the government said.
BONDS
Argentina debt snapped up
Argentina easily raised US$500 million in a debt issue on Tuesday that challenged efforts by hedge funds to force the country to pay off bonds they hold. Buenos Aires announced the new issue late on Monday of nine-year BONAR bonds at 8.75 percent interest rate under local law. Demand for the bonds exceeded what was on offer by 3.7 times, the Argentine Ministry of Finance said, suggesting strong appetite for Argentine debt.
RETAIL
Tesco reports massive loss
Britain’s biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco PLC, announced on Wednesday that it had plunged massively into the red last year as it took a hit on the value of its property. Tesco, which was hit by a major crisis in October last year owing to accounting errors that overstated profits, reported a loss after tax of £5.74 billion (US$8.57 billion) in the 12 months to the end of February. That compared with a net profit of £974 million in 2013-2014, the group said.
INTERNET
Yahoo profit plummets 93%
Yahoo Inc reported on Tuesday a 93 percent slide in quarterly profit from a year ago, while revenue rose modestly in disappointing quarterly results for the struggling Internet pioneer. However, they were both lower than Wall Street forecasts. Net profit for the first quarter tumbled to US$21.1 million from US$312 million in the same period last year and total revenue for the first three months of the year grew to US$1.23 billion, led by gains in “search revenue,” from ads linked to queries using Yahoo’s search function.
COMMODITIES
Noble to improve reporting
Noble Group Ltd, the commodity trader whose accounting has been criticized by research companies including short-seller Muddy Waters LLC, said it is to make its financial reports more transparent starting next month. The “exact nature and format” of additional disclosures is still being determined, the Hong Kong-based company said in a statement. The changes will take place from May 7, when it reports first-quarter financial results.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San