UNITED STATES
Retail sales rise 1.2%
Retail sales surged last month as households boosted purchases of automobiles and a range of other goods even as they paid a bit more for gasoline, the latest sign economic growth is finally gathering steam. Retail sales increased 1.2 percent last month after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent gain in April, the Department of Commerce said. While other data on Thursday showed a slight increase in new applications for unemployment benefits, the number remained in territory associated with a tightening labor market. The firming economy could likely prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in September.
MEDIA
Murdoch plans succession
Rupert Murdoch presented a succession plan at media-entertainment conglomerate 21st Century Fox on Thursday, passing his chief executive job to his son James and another key role to son Lachlan. A source close to the company confirmed the plan to Agence France-Presse, saying James Murdoch would assume the CEO job, while elder brother Lachlan would become executive chairman. The plan is to be presented next week to the board of directors, the source said. However, the 84-year-old Australian-born US citizen who built the global empire does not plan a complete exit.
PETROLEUM
Chevron mulls Bight drill
Chevron Corp is studying data from its largest-ever seismic survey to decide where to drill for oil in an untapped frontier off southern Australia. The seismic program, carried out by Norway’s TGS Nopec Geophysical Co, gathered data covering about 22,000km2 of the Great Australian Bight, Chevron’s local unit said in an e-mail response to questions. Chevron is hunting for oil in the deep-water region that UK energy giant BP PLC has called “pretty much the last big unexplored basin in the whole world.” The US oil producer won acreage in the Bight in 2013 and has proposed spending almost A$500 million (US$388 million) on exploration.
JAPAN
Bourse head ‘ashamed’
The longtime head of the stock exchange says he is “ashamed” over a recent accounting scandal involving electronics and industrial conglomerate Toshiba Corp. Japan Exchange Group CEO Atsushi Saito yesterday said he was puzzled by Toshiba’s apparent laxity over its accounting and that he hoped auditors and accounting firms would be more vigilant. Toshiba announced last month that it was expanding a probe into alleged underreporting of project costs and losses and setting up an independent committee to investigate further.
MINING
Petra downbeat on forecast
Petra Diamonds Ltd forecast full-year revenue below market expectations as it fetches less for the smaller diamonds being mined from late-stage ores at its Finsch and Cullinan mines in South Africa. The company, which expects full-year revenue of about US$430 million, said it had seen fewer high-quality stones, but kept its production target of about 3.2 million carats for the year. Petra Diamonds has four producing mines in South Africa and one in Tanzania. Analysts on average had expected revenue of US$457.75 million for the full year ending on June 30, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy