BANKING
ANZ to cut overseas jobs
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) Ltd, Australia’s third-biggest bank by market value, is cutting about 30 jobs in its institutional banking unit. The affected positions are based in New York, London and Asia, and are mostly in customer relationship roles, ANZ Bank spokesman Stephen Ries said in an e-mailed statement. Australia’s most Asia-focused lender is in the process of restructuring its operations and shrinking its Asian businesses. The bank last month said it had reduced its Singapore headcount by about 300 from a year earlier, but remained committed to having an institutional banking presence across 14 Asian countries..
TELECOM
Ericsson announces losses
Swedish mobile networks company Ericsson AB yesterday said that “negative industry trends have further accelerated,” contributing to a third-quarter loss for the company of 233 million kronor (US$26.2 million). The loss compared with a net profit of 3.08 billion kronor during the same three-month period last year. The group said revenue dropped 14 percent from 59.2 billion kronor to 51.1 billion kronor amid fierce Asian competition and a slowing telecommunications equipment market. It added that the industry trends indicate to “a somewhat weaker than normal seasonal sales growth between the third and fourth quarters.”
AUTOMAKERs
Daimler profits soar
German automaker Daimler AG yesterday said that stronger sales of its technology-loaded Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan and sports utility vehicles helped third-quarter earnings swell by 13 percent. Net profit during the July to September period rose from 2.42 billion to 2.73 billion euros (US$2.63 billion to US$2.97 billion) in the same quarter a year earlier. The increase came on a revenue rise of 4 percent to 38.6 billion euros, the company said. Favorable exchange rate developments boosted earnings, in addition to stronger sales. The company would use its momentum to move forward with its electric vehicles.
UNITED STATES
New buyers boost real estate
Home resales surged last month after two straight months of declines as first-time buyers stepped into the market, pointing to underlying momentum in the economy. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales rose 3.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.47 million units. That was well above economists’ expectations for an increase to a 5.35 million-unit pace. First-time buyers accounted for 34 percent of transactions last month, the largest share since July 2012. Still, the share remains well below the 40 percent to 45 percent that economists say is required for a robust housing market.
ENGLAND
Sales optimism growing
Consumer confidence has rebounded since the Brexit vote, despite the impending squeeze on household budgets from rising prices, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey found. A gauge of expectations for the next 12 months returned to positive territory last month as more consumers predicted they wouldd be better off than worse off, PwC said yesterday. Londoners and young people were the most upbeat, the survey of 2,050 consumers found. The report suggest consumers would continue to support an economy facing an uncertain year as Britain prepares for negotiations to leave the EU and the weak pound stokes inflation.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure