CURRENCIES
PBOC lowers yuan
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) yesterday set the value of the yuan at a more than five-year low against the US dollar, according to the national foreign exchange market, in a pattern of weakness in anticipation of higher US interest rates. The central bank put the yuan at 6.5784 to US$1, down 0.45 percent from its fix on Friday and its lowest level since February 2011, according to data from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The government only allows the yuan to rise or fall 2 percent on either side of the daily fix, one of the ways it maintains control over the currency.
MINING
Galaxy to buy lithium firm
Galaxy Resources Ltd, an Australian lithium developer, yesterday agreed to acquire joint-venture partner General Mining Corp in a deal that values its target at A$216 million (US$155 million). Shares in the two companies surged. Perth, Australia-based Galaxy offered 1.65 new shares for each General Mining share it does not already own, it said in a statement. The boards of both companies unanimously support the merger, according to the statement. The combined entity is to have hard-rock and brine-based lithium projects in Australia, Canada and Argentina. Developers of lithium projects are racing to bring new supply to market amid soaring prices. Growth in electric vehicle sales is forecast to double demand for the material in the next five years, Liberum Capital Ltd said in a note on Friday.
SWEDEN
First-quarter GDP rose 0.5%
The economy grew almost in line with estimates in the first quarter as consumer spending gained amid record stimulus from the central bank. GDP expanded 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter, Statistics Sweden said in a statement. Growth was expected to reach 0.6 percent in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. It expanded an annual 4.2 percent, compared with a 4.3 percent estimate. Fourth-quarter growth was revised up to 1.6 percent from 1.3 percent. The largest Nordic economy has boomed as the central bank cut rates deep below zero and pumped money into the economy by buying government bonds.
FRANCE
GDP growth beats forecast
The economy grew faster than estimated in the first quarter, lifted by improving corporate investment. Growth accelerated to 0.6 percent, instead of the 0.5 percent estimated on April 29, statistics office INSEE said yesterday. That compared with a 0.4 percent increase in the previous quarter and 1.4 percent a year earlier. Corporate investment jumped 2.4 percent in the quarter instead of the 1.6 percent estimated, helped by 40 billion euros (US$44.5 billion) in tax cuts over the course of four years and a short-term tax break that allowed companies accelerated amortization in the current fiscal year. Consumer spending increased 1 percent, compared with the 1.2 percent initially reported.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney may sue Wanda
Walt Disney Co said it was prepared to take action to protect its intellectual property rights after performers dressed as Snow White and Captain America, as well as stuffed animals that resembled Kung Fu Panda, were featured at Dalian Wanda Group Co’s (萬達集團) new theme park in China’s Jiangxi Province. “The non-Wanda characters were operated by individual stores within Wanda Mall. They do not represent Wanda,” Wanda said in a statement.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts