FINLAND
Credit rating to be lowered
The nation faces the loss of its top credit rating at Moody’s Investors Service as the country struggles to escape an economic contraction that has lasted since 2012. Prospects on the northernmost eurozone’s long-term “Aaa” rating were lowered to negative from stable, the company said in a statement on Friday. The rating was affirmed. Moody’s cited the government’s worsening budget deficit and mounting debt as reasons for the weaker outlook. Finland lost its top credit grade at S&P in October last year, while Fitch Ratings in March reduced prospects on its “AAA” to negative.
AID
IMF to contribute to Iraq
The IMF on Friday said it was preparing US$833 million in emergency financial assistance to Iraq as the country battles the Islamic State insurgency. The IMF said a mission had agreed on the aid with the Iraqi government under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument program, subject to IMF management approval, which is likely to come next month. The IMF said the Iraq economy contracted 2.1 percent last year “mainly because of the violence,” and might only grow 0.5 percent this year.
BANKING
Barclays settles asset fight
Barclays PLC said it would boost pretax profit by about US$750 million after resolving a long-running asset fight with the remnants of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The accord over the 2008 sale of Lehman’s brokerage assets to Barclays would give the British lender all except US$80 million of the US$1.1 billion of disputed assets, the UK bank said in a statement on Friday. The settlement needs approval from a federal bankruptcy judge in Manhattan.
INTERNET
Netflix to launch in Italy
Internet TV service Netflix Inc plans to expand into Italy later this year, the company said yesterday. The Silicon Valley-based company said that, starting in October, Internet users in Italy would be able to subscribe to Netflix to watch a selection of TV series and movies on TVs, computers, smartphones, tablets and other devices.
SUPERCONDUCTORS
Professor denies spying
A physics professor at a Philadelphia university has pleaded not guilty to charges he gave US technology secrets to China. Temple University professor Xi Xiaoxing (郗小星) is an expert on superconductivity, which is the ability to conduct electricity without resistance. The 47-year-old entered his plea on Thursday. He is free on US$100,000 bail and surrendered his passport. He is a naturalized US citizen born in China.
TRADE RANKINGS
Wal-Mart remains No. 1
Wal-Mart Stores Inc kept its lock on the top ranking of the Fortune 500 annual list of the largest US companies on Thursday, while Apple Inc was the most profitable and Facebook Inc the most upward-bound, Fortune magazine announced. Wal-Mart remained in the No. 1 spot for the third year in a row, based on company revenues last year of US$485.6 billion. That put it ahead of No. 2 ExxonMobil Corp, with US$382.6 billion, and then Chevron Corp, Berkshire Hathaway Inc and Apple, in a top five ranking that was unchanged from last year.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained