GERMANY
Consumer sentiment flat
There was little sign of Brexit uncertainty in a monthly survey of German consumers released yesterday, with the public’s mood almost unchanged this month compared with last month. Market research company GfK’s headline consumer sentiment index fell slightly to 10 points this month, compared with 10.1 points last month. The score was slightly higher than expected by analysts surveyed by Factset, who had forecast a larger fall to 9.9 points. Sentiment “developed positively overall, and apparently digested the Brexit shock well,” the pollsters wrote in a statement.
JAPAN
Consumer prices dip 0.5%
Japanese inflation continued to disappoint last month, data released yesterday showed, with consumer prices dropping for a fifth straight month in the latest blow to Tokyo’s faltering war on deflation. The 0.5 percent decline last month was worse than the 0.4 percent average fall expected by economists. The weak inflation figures will heap more pressure on Japan’s central bank for another round of stimulus. The Bank of Japan holds its next meeting late next month. ‘
SPAIN
GDP edges up 0.8%
The Spanish economy expanded 0.8 percent sequentially in the second quarter — slightly higher than the 0.7 percent estimate it had announced last month. The 0.8 percent growth in the second quarter was the same as that of the first quarter. Compared with the same period last year, the economy rose 3.2 percent from April to June — a slower rate than the first quarter, when the economy grew 3.4 percent year-on-year, the Ine said.
AIRLINES
Air NZ posts record profit
New Zealand’s national airline yesterday posted a record profit thanks to surging tourism and lower fuel costs, but said it expected increased competition from rival international carriers in the year ahead. Air New Zealand announced an after-tax profit of NZ$463 million (US$339 million) for the year ending June, an increase of 42 percent over the previous year. Revenue rose 6.2 percent over the previous year to NZ$5.2 billion. A record 3.3 million people visited New Zealand in the year ending last month, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
CONGLOMERATES
Citic first-half profit fell 46%
Citic Ltd (中國中信), China’s biggest conglomerate, reported that net income for the six months through June 30 dropped 46 percent to HK$20.2 billion (US$2.6 billion) from HK$37.7 billion a year earlier, according to a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday. In a letter to shareholders, Citic said that Chinese banks’ profitability and capital would likely be eroded “in the near term.”
BANKING
Suspended banks seek truce
Nine Nigerian lenders banned this week from foreign-exchange trading for failing to remit some oil money into a government account are holding talks with the central bank to seek a truce, operators said on Thursday. The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday suspended nine banks for withholding US$2.12 billion belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas contrary to a government regulation. A top executive at one of the affected banks said the ban might trigger “a run on the banks,” as concerned customers withdraw their deposits.
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