INVESTMENT
German bund yields surge
A selloff in European government bonds pushed yields on Germany’s benchmark 10-year securities to the highest since the UK’s June 23 vote on whether to leave the EU. The declines are being spurred by rising investor expectations for consumer prices, just as traders await a eurozone inflation report that’s forecast to show an uptick on a monthly basis. Losses in the US Treasuries and gilt market are also spilling over to Europe, with German bund yields climbing above 0.1 percent for first time since Britain’s referendum. Benchmark German 10-year bund yields rose four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 0.09 percent as of 9:45am in London.
REAL ESTATE
Blackstone bids for Carnegie
Blackstone Group LP made a mandatory bid for Swedish residential landlord D. Carnegie & Co AB after increasing its stake to more than 30 percent. Blackstone, through its subsidiary Vega Holdco Sarl, offered 100 Swedish kronor (US$11.30) for each D. Carnegie share, according to a statement yesterday. The bid, which is lower than Friday’s closing share price of 102.5 kronor, values the Stockholm-based company at about 7.2 billion kronor. D. Carnegie said its shareholders should reject the bid. Swedish apartment prices jumped 3 percent last month, up from a 1 percent gain in August, according to Svensk Maeklarstatistik AB.
CHINA
Shares dive on Crown woes
Stocks yesterday tumbled with casinos taking a hit as news that 18 staff of Australia’s Crown Resorts had been held in China fueled worries about companies in Macau. The Hang Seng Index lost 0.84 percent, or 195.77 points, to close at 23,037.54. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.74 percent, or 22.64 points, to 3,041.17 while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, lost 0.94 percent, or 19.18 points, to 2,027.56.
OIL
Iran to boost output
Iran, OPEC’s third-biggest member, plans to boost its oil output to a level of 4 million barrels per day this year, potentially complicating the group’s plan to cut supply in an effort to prop up prices. The nation would raise production from 3.89 million barrels per day, National Iranian Oil Co managing director Ali Kardor told a conference in Tehran yesterday. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia told reporters the country pumped 4.085 million barrels per day before sanctions were imposed on its economy. Iran exports more than 2.2 million barrels per day.
PROPERTY
Singapore’s home sales rise
Home sales in Singapore rose last month as developers marketed more projects after a lull in sales in August, caused by Ghost Month. Developers sold 509 units last month, compared with a revised 468 units in August, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The government has been steadfast in its commitment to cool the housing market, maintaining real-estate curbs since 2009 even as home prices dropped for a 12th quarter. An index tracking private residential prices fell 1.5 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 from the previous quarter, the most in more than seven years, preliminary data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Oct. 3 showed, Residential values are down 11 percent from their peak in September 2013.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”