COMMODITIES
Merchant gains lost
The Merchant Commodity Fund, managed by Doug King and Michael Coleman, fell 10.6 percent last month as commodities slumped, wiping out gains for the year. The fund lost 10.3 percent in the first eight months this year, Coleman confirmed via e-mail from Singapore, declining to comment further. Hedge funds investing in commodities have chalked up losses this year amid a slump in the prices of crude oil and iron ore. The Eurekahedge CTA/Managed Futures Hedge Fund Index was down 0.8 percent in the period, on track for the second annual decline in 15 years. Some commodity hedge fund managers lost money last month as they bet prices of oil and iron ore would extend declines in a month when those commodities climbed.
BANKING
Macquarie expects climb
Macquarie Group Ltd expects first-half profits to climb 40 percent from the same period last year as a weaker Australian currency, higher performance fees at its asset management unit and increased client risk appetite boost earnings. Net income in the year to March 31 is also expected to be higher than the previous year, the Sydney-based investment bank said in a regulatory filing. Second-half profits are likely to be broadly in line with the first six months, even as the firm expects lower performance fees in the period. Macquarie reports first-half earnings on Oct. 30, according to its Web site.
GAMING
Nintendo appoints president
Japanese video game giant Nintendo said yesterday it has appointed Tatsumi Kimishima as its new president two months after its chief executive died from cancer. Kimishima, who is currently the head of human resources, will take office tomorrow, the company said in a press release. The 65 year-old former banker also served as CEO of Nintendo America between 2006 and 2013. The Kyoto-based company said it has named Kimishima in order to “reinforce and enhance its management” after the death of its CEO Satoru Iwata. Iwata died in July at the age of 55, just months after abandoning a controversial consoles-only policy.
ECONOMY
Malaysia to boost economy
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the government will pump 20 billion ringgit (US$4.6 billion) into an equity fund to support the stock market and ruled out capital controls despite the ringgit’s plunge. The Malaysian ringgit is down 26 percent from a year earlier, breaching 4 ringgit to the dollar last month, its worst level in 17 years. The stock market is down 7.5 percent in the past three months. Najib reiterated the government has no plans to bring back capital controls. He said yesterday that ValueCap, which was set up in 2012 to boost undervalued shares, is to be revived with 20 billion ringgit capital. Malaysia pegged the ringgit at 3.80 to the US dollar and imposed capital curbs in September 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.
COMPUTING
Toshiba posts Q1 loss
Toshiba Corp posted a net loss for the first quarter as sales fell to the lowest in two and a half years. The net loss was ¥12.3 billion (US$102 million) for the three months ended June, the Tokyo-based industrial group reported yesterday in a statement. Sales were ¥1.35 trillion, the lowest since the quarter ended December 2012. Toshiba is releasing its second earnings report in as many weeks after delaying results amid an accounting scandal.
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
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)
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