JAPAN
Household spending up 1.2%
Household spending rose 1.2 percent last month from the same month last year, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data showed yesterday, the first gain since August last year. The result surprised economists, who had foreseen a 1.9 percent decline, according to a Bloomberg market forecast. However, economists likely overlooked the positive effect of the extra day last month due to the Leap Year, NLI Research Institute senior economist Taro Saito said. Separate economic data released yesterday showed Japan’s jobless rate came in at 3.3 percent last month, slightly worse from 3.2 percent in the previous month.
SAUDI ARABIA
Consumer activity down
Consumers withdrew and spent less money last month, according to central bank data released on Monday. M3, one of the broadest measures of money supply, shrank for the first time since at least 2000, when Bloomberg started tracking the data. Cash withdrawals through ATMs fell 8 percent after expanding for at least the previous five months, central bank data show. Point-of-sale transactions, an indicator of consumer confidence in the economy, dropped 9 percent from the year-earlier period to 15.2 billion riyals (US$4.1 billion). The kingdom’s growth may slow to 1.5 percent this year, according to the median estimate of a Bloomberg survey, the slowest pace since at least 2009.
RETAIL
Wal-Mart wins ruling
Wal-Mart Stores Inc has won a legal victory in a fight over tax revenue with the government of Puerto Rico. A federal judge in the US island territory ruled on Monday that a modified tangible-property tax is invalid. The retail giant filed the suit in December last year and is Puerto Rico’s largest private employer. Federal Judge Jose Antonio Fuste also said in his ruling that the government needs to be more transparent and that Puerto Ricans deserve to know the truth about how the economic crisis originated. The Puerto Rican Department of Justice is considering whether to appeal the decision.
TECHNOLOGY
Dell to sell Perot Systems
Dell Inc has agreed to sell its Perot Systems subsidiary, which provides information technology services to hospitals and governments, to the Japanese technology company NTT Data Corp for almost US$3.1 billion. NTT Data disclosed the agreement with Dell in a filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday. It did not say when it intended to complete the acquisition. Dell bought Perot Systems, founded by the entrepreneur and onetime presidential candidate Ross Perot, for US$3.9 billion in 2009 as it tried to expand beyond its struggling core business of making personal computers. However, now Dell is shedding peripheral units and raising cash as it prepares to take over EMC Corp.
CASINOS
Elaine Wynn files suit
Elaine Wynn, the ex-wife of Wynn Resorts Ltd founder Steve Wynn, filed suit in a Nevada state court seeking to gain control over her shareholdings in the casino company. Chief executive officer Steve Wynn breached their January 2010 stockholder agreement, Elaine Wynn said on Monday in a statement. She accused her ex-husband of orchestrating her ouster from the board in retaliation for asking questions about the “tone at the top,” the absence of appropriate internal controls, the withholding of information from the board and alleged reckless activity of the CEO and others.
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