BANKING
Qatar bank pushes gold
Doha Bank QSC expects to sell a record 200 million riyals (US$53 million) of gold this year as consumers take advantage of lower prices and investors seek a haven from falling equities and weakening currencies. The bank, the first lender authorized to import and sell gold in Qatar, took in 23,818 ounces in the first seven months of this year compared with 15,830 ounces in the same period last year, Samuel K.V, head of treasury trading and product management, said in a phone interview from Doha on Sunday. Sales were worth 110 million riyals this year, he said. Demand is expected to rise due to the “big volatility in the Chinese stock market and currency” and the possibility of a delayed interest rate increase by the Fed. Gold declined 0.5 percent to US$1,154.55 an ounce yesterday after rallying 4.1 percent last week.
TECHNOLOGY
Speculation spurs shares
Sharp Corp surged in Tokyo trading after the Asahi newspaper report spurred optimism the company would spin off its LCD business and sell a stake to electronics assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密). Sharp was the best performer on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average, surging as much as 5.4 percent to ¥175 before trading at ¥171 as 12:30pm local time. That compares with a 4 percent plunge in the Nikkei 225. Sharp is also considering selling its stake in a factory co-owned by Hon Hai, the Taiwan-based assembler of iPhones, video game consoles and tablet computers, the Asahi reported, without saying where it got the information. Sharp, a supplier of LCD panels to Apple Inc, had an operating loss of ¥28.8 billion (US$23 billion) for the three months ended June 30.
TECHNOLOGY
Netflix, Softbank team up
Netflix Inc and Softbank Group are considering a content partnership for the video streaming service set to start in Japan on Sept. 2. Softbank is also to sell Netflix subscriptions in the country through its retail shops, the two companies said in a statement in Tokyo yesterday. The service is to range from ¥650 to ¥1,450 per month (US$5.41 to US$12.07). Netflix has already partnered with Fuji Media Holdings Inc to produce a drama for the service’s debut, the first time for the US-based company to launch in an overseas market with local content. The world’s largest online subscription video service will compete with Hulu’s Japan business, owned by Nippon Television Holdings Inc and streaming services offered by NTT Docomo Inc and Softbank’s own Uula.
ECONOMY
Denmark GDP prediction cut
Denmark’s new government cut its forecasts for economic growth this year and next year, and predicted wider budget deficits than were seen under the previous administration. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen sees GDP expanding 1.5 percent this year, compared with 1.7 percent estimated by the Social Democrat-led coalition that was ousted in June elections. GDP is to expand 1.9 percent next year, also less than the 2 percent previously foreseen, according to a Finance Ministry document seen by Bloomberg. The economy grew 1.1 percent this year. Slower growth is to coincide with wider budget deficits than had been predicted before the June election, with the shortfall now seen at 2.7 percent of GDP this year, more than twice the 1.3 percent previously estimated. The gap is to widen to 2.8 percent next year, the Finance Ministry document showed.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by