UNITED STATES
New home sales fall 6.8%
New single-family home sales fell in June to a seven-month low and May’s sales were revised sharply down, but the data on Friday did little to change the belief that the housing market recovery was shifting into higher gear. New home sales dropped 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000 units, the lowest level since November last year, the Department of Commerce said. May’s sales pace was cut to 517,000 units from the previously reported 546,000 units. Sales of new homes account for only 8.1 percent of the housing market and tend to be volatile on a month-to-month basis.
BRAZIL
Fund sells state bank shares
The country’s sovereign-wealth fund concluded a sale of shares in state-owned bank Banco do Brasil SA as part of an effort to narrow the country’s budget deficit and stave off a rating downgrade. The fund raised about 134 million reais (US$39.9 million) in the sale, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance on Friday. The shares were sold at an average price of 23.84 reais between June 29 and July 15, the ministry said. The proceeds may be used by the government to boost its fiscal position.
DEFENSE INDUSTRY
Navy billing probe launched
United Technologies says the US Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into allegations that subsidiary helicopter maker Sikorsky and two subsidiaries overbilled the US Navy. The aerospace and building systems conglomerate said in a regulatory filing on Friday that the government accuses the subsidiaries of adding profit and overhead costs to the price of spare parts. United Technologies agreed this week to sell Sikorsky to Lockheed Martin Corp for US$9 billion.
CASINOS
Galaxy buys Monaco stake
Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd is taking a stake in a Monaco casinos and hotels operator, as the company expands beyond Macau amid a gambling downturn in the Chinese city. Galaxy is buying 5 percent of the shares of Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco (SBM) from an independent third party, the company said in an e-mailed statement Saturday. It did not name the seller or the sale price.
RUSSIA
Credit rating agency launched
The central bank on Friday said it would launch a new credit rating agency by the end of the year in an apparent bid to rival US firms that recently downgraded the country’s sovereign debt. The new credit rating agency, which will have capital of 3 billion rubles (US$51.3 million), is to be headed by Gazprombank vice president Yekaterina Trofimova.
AVIATION
American’s profit doubles
Dramatically cheaper jet fuel helped American Airlines nearly double its second-quarter profit to US$1.7 billion despite lower revenue. The world’s biggest airline on Friday said that it was American’s most profitable quarter ever, after excluding one-time costs and gains. Friday’s results from American capped an astonishing earnings season for the nation’s biggest airlines, several of which reported record profits in the April-through-June period. Still, American warned that a key revenue figure will decline in the third quarter, and the stock fell 7 percent.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)