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.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San