TECHNOLOGY
Dell may sell units to NTT
Dell might announce the sale of its technology services unit to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) for US$3.5 billion as early as Monday next week, Re/code reported, citing sources briefed on the process. Dell plans to sell the division as part of a wider effort to raise as much as US$10 billion from the disposal of assets that are not core to its business, the report said. The acquisition by the Japan’s NTT Data Corp would be the company’s largest, helping increase its sales outside Japan, where a shrinking and aging population has stymied economic growth.
UNITED STATES
Minimum wage rise likely
California lawmakers have reached a tentative deal to raise the state minimum wage to US$15 an hour by 2022, potentially signaling the biggest advance yet in a campaign to increase pay for low-income workers that has reverberated in the Democratic presidential contest and in cities across the country. If approved, California would become the first state to adopt a US$15 an hour minimum wage. A measure to impose a US$15 statewide minimum wage in New York is under negotiation in Albany. Under the tentative California deal the wage, which was raised to US$10 an hour on Jan. 1, would increase incrementally to US$15 over the next six years.
COMMODITIES
Gold weakens under dollar
Gold has been thrown onto the defensive by a resurgent US dollar, sinking to the lowest in more than a month as the US currency’s rally hurts the allure of the metal that has been the best-performing commodity of the year. Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.7 percent to US$1,208.38 an ounce, the lowest since Feb. 23, and traded at US$1,213.89 at 1:50pm in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The metal retreated 3.1 percent last week, the most since November last year, and it is headed for the first monthly drop of the year after surging 11 percent last month. Gold’s rally this year has been cut to 14 percent as a gauge of the US dollar heads for the longest stretch of gains since January.
OIL
Oil on hold for meeting
Oil prices edged up in Asia yesterday, recovering slightly from last week’s decline, but analysts said traders would likely hold off making any big moves ahead of next month’s meeting of key producers. Hopes for an agreement between Russia, Saudi Arabia and other crude giants to at least freeze output sent both main contracts racing above US$40 earlier this month, helped by a dive in the strength of the US dollar. However, some of those gains were chipped away last week as talk of a possible US interest rate hike lifted the US dollar and a report showed another jump in US crude stockpiles.
FASHION
Giornetti leaves Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo creative director Massimiliano Giornetti, is leaving the fashion house after 16 years. In a statement, Ferragamo thanked Giornetti for his commitment and collaboration and said it was taking the opportunity of the departure to “revisit our approach to creativity.” Giornetti entered Ferragamo in 2000 as menswear designer and in 2011 became the brand’s creative director. “Over the years, the company has discovered and supported so many young talents and today can count on an excellent in-house creative team,” chief executive Michele Norsa said in a statement.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last