UNITED STATES
Deficit less than predicted
The trade deficit in April increased less than expected, as exports of goods rebounded strongly, suggesting that trade would be a boost to economic growth in the second quarter. The Department of Commerce on Friday said the trade gap rose 5.3 percent to US$37.4 billion. March’s trade deficit was revised down to US$35.5 billion, which was the smallest since December 2013, from the previously reported US$40.4 billion. Overall exports of goods and services rose 1.5 percent to US$182.8 billion in April, while imports of goods rose 2.4 percent to US$178.9 billion in April, pointing to a pickup in domestic demand.
CANADA
Merchandise gap narrows
The nation’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to C$2.94 billion (US$2.27 billion) in April from March’s record shortfall, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The deficit was wider than the C$2.5 billion forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Export volumes — a measure that strips out the effect of fluctuating prices — rose 0.5 percent on the month, less than the 0.8 percent increase in imports, indicating net trade will be a drag on growth, economists said. Shipments in and out of Canada increased after declining for two straight months. Exports climbed 1.5 percent to C$41.8 billion, not enough to undo the slide from January’s C$46.1 billion. Imports rose 0.9 percent to C$44.7 billion.
OIL
BP to settle Gulf lawsuit
BP PLC on Friday announced that it has agreed to pay US$175 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who accused the oil giant of misleading them about the rate of oil flowing after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. In a brief statement, BP said it would pay the investors over this year and next year. US District Judge Keith Ellison still needs to approve the deal. BP said the agreement does not resolve other securities-related litigation relating to the disaster, which killed 11 workers and poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf for 87 days.
ACCOMODATION
Airbnb to probe racism
Airbnb Inc on Friday said it is cracking down on racism after booting one home-sharing host for blatantly discriminating against a woman of color who had made a reservation. A freshly launched review of how hosts and guests interact online and in the real world should be completed by September, when the San Francisco-based start-up is to announce the findings and what it will do about them. Airbnb said that it has enlisted former American Civil Liberties Union head Laura Murphy to lead its discrimination-fighting efforts.
BANKING
SoftBank sells more shares
SoftBank Group Corp increased the amount of money it will raise from selling down its stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to US$10 billion, after exercising an option to dispose of more shares through a trust. That is up from a previous figure of US$8.9 billion, which was itself raised by US$1 billion from an initial announcement early last week. SoftBank is selling shares in Alibaba for the first time since first buying in about 16 years ago.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by