UNITED STATES
Consumer confidence up
The US Conference Board on Tuesday said that its consumer confidence index rose to 98.1 this month from 96.3 last month, the second straight monthly gain. The business research group said Americans were more confident about the future, though their assessment of current economic conditions was unchanged from December. Consumers shrugged off the recent sharp fall in the stock market and signs of economic weakness overseas. From October through last month, employers added a robust average of 284,000 jobs a month. Unemployment remained at a seven-year low of 5 percent last month.
TELECOMS
TDC falls as it drops payout
TDC A/S, the Danish telecom company that has branded itself a yield-stock, yesterday fell the most in almost a decade in Copenhagen after canceling a planned 1.5 krone dividend payment and forecasting a smaller profit for this year. TDC fell as much as 19 percent, the most since April 2006, making it the day’s biggest loser in the STOXX Europe 600 Index. TDC declined 15 percent to 29.88 kroner as of 9:22am in Copenhagen, wiping 3.83 billion kroner (US$557 million) off its market value. The company said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization would fall to 8.8 billion kroner this year. That compares with an average estimate of 9.2 billion kroner in a Bloomberg survey.
COMMODITIES
Gold Fields sees lower costs
Gold Fields Ltd yesterday said that costs last year were probably lower than previous forecasts as the South African bullion producer, with mines from Australia to Peru, was helped by the strengthening of the US dollar against currencies of countries in which it operates. All-in sustaining costs for the year ending Dec. 31 would probably be US$1,020 an ounce, compared with a forecast of US$1,035 an ounce published in November, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement. Production is estimated at 2.16 million ounces, just shy of its prior forecast of 2.17 million ounces.
ENERGY
Raisio plans biomass plant
Raisio Group plans to build a 9.5-megawatt biomass power plant in southwestern Finland at a cost of about 8 million euros (U$8.7 million). The manufacturer of food products and animal feeds will use the plant to produce steam and heat in its industrial zone in the town of Raisio, the company said in a statement. The facility will burn wood chips from the local forestry industry, it said. Construction is to begin late this year, with completion set for the spring of next year. Finland generates 1.8 gigawatts of power from biomass, or about 13 percent of its electricity.
MACHINERY
Terex rises on takeover bid
Shares of heavy lifting equipment maker Terex Corp soared after the firm said it had received an unsolicited takeover offer of US$30 per share from China’s Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co (中聯重科). The bid would value Westport, Connecticut-based Terex at about US$3.3 billion. Terex said it signed a confidentiality agreement with Zoomlion and its board is reviewing the proposal. It said it would not comment further until the review is complete. Terex said in August last year that it would merge with Finland’s Konecranes PLC in a deal that would have Terex shareholders controlling 60 percent of the new firm and Konecranes the rest. Terex on Tuesday said that its board had not changed its recommendation to combine with Konecranes.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure