MACROECEONOMICS
China unemployment drops
China’s urban unemployment rate dropped to 4.05 percent at the end of last month, from the 4.1 percent recorded at the end of last year, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday. Facing slowing economic growth, authorities have said that avoiding mass unemployment is a crucial policy priority, although the urban jobless rate is widely known to understate the real unemployment figure, a point acknowledged by the government. The government aims to create at least 10 million new jobs this year and keep the urban jobless rate below 4.5 percent.
REAL ESTATE
New home sales drop in US
Sales of new homes plummeted in the US last month, as the spring buying season opened with sharp declines in the northeast and south of the nation. Purchases of new homes have been volatile on a monthly basis, although sales during the first quarter of this year are higher than last year. The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday that new-home sales fell 11.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000.
GERMANY
Business confidence high
A closely watched survey shows business confidence grew for the sixth consecutive month in Europe’s biggest economy. The Ifo institute yesterday said that its monthly confidence index rose to 108.6 points for this month from 107.9 last month. Ifo says the numbers show that the “upswing in the German economy continues.” The survey is based upon about 7,000 monthly surveys of business managers and is closely watched as a key indicator of the nation’s economic prospects.
RETAIL
Starbucks revenue rises
Starbucks Corp, the world’s biggest coffee-shop chain, on Thursday posted that sales last quarter topped estimates, fueled by an expanded menu and its increasingly popular mobile-phone app. Revenue gained 18 percent to US$4.56 billion in the January-to-March quarter, the Seattle-based company said. Analysts had estimated US$4.53 billion on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company also reiterated its full-year forecast for 16 percent to 18 percent revenue growth, saying investments in stores and its workforce would fuel its expansion.
AUTOMAKERS
Kia reports small profit
Kia Motors Corp yesterday said its first-quarter net profit rose slightly from a year earlier, despite falls in sales revenue. Net income came to 903.2 billion won (US$835.9 million) during the January-to-March period, up 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. However, operating profit plunged 30.5 percent year-on-year to 511.6 billion won, while sales revenue was down 6.3 percent at 11.18 trillion won.
INTERNET
Twitter launches ‘Highlights’
Twitter on Thursday rolled out a new feature aimed at helping users sift through the large number of tweets on their feed each day. The new feature called “Highlights” offers a twice-daily summary “of the best tweets for you, delivered via rich push notification,” Twitter’s Gordon Luk said in a blog post. It is the latest effort by Twitter to boost engagement for its members amid growth that is slower than some rival social networks.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure