FRANCE
Growth short of expectation
The economy is set to grow slightly less than expected this year, the minister of finance said yesterday, in another setback for President Francois Hollande as he weighs a re-election bid. Minister of Finance Michel Sapin said on Europe 1 radio that economic growth of 1.4 percent was “the figure we are working on for this year as an assumption.” Previous forecasts were for 1.5 percent growth for this year. It follows data earlier this week showing unemployment rates increased slightly in the third quarter, as the nation gears up for presidential elections next year.
BANKING
Mexico raises interest rate
Mexico’s central bank on Thursday decided to raise its interbank interest rate by one-half point to 5.25 percent, citing “a more complex world economic panorama caused by, among other things, the US elections.” The decision was the second time in as many months the Bank of Mexico has raised the rate. In September, it raised the rate a half-point to 4.75 percent, seeking to shore up a weak peso.
ARGENTINA
Massive job losses reported
About 130,000 people lost their jobs from January to September amid a recession, the government said on Thursday. Companies reported a total of 127,595 job cuts — a 1.5 percent fall in employment overall — the Federal Public Revenues Administration said. Just less than 8 million of the country’s 41 million people were formally employed. President Mauricio Macri has introduced spending cuts and tariff hikes.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to buy SolarCity
Tesla Motors Inc on Thursday said that shareholders approved a plan to buy “renewable” energy company SolarCity Corp in an overwhelming endorsement of a plan outlined by founder Elon Musk. Not counting votes by Musk, who holds stakes in both companies, more than 85 percent of shareholder votes were cast in favor of the acquisition, according to a statement by Tesla. The deal, valued at US$2.6 billion, is expected to be completed in a matter of days, it said. Tesla has painted the controversial plan as a financially smart move that comes with the benefit of helping protect the planet. Combining the companies would have “significant financial benefits,” the company said.
RETAIL
Clothing sales boost market
Retail sales in the UK rebounded sharply last month on strong clothing demand, official data showed on Thursday. Sales by volume jumped by 1.9 percent in October compared with September, the UK Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That easily outstripped market expectations for an increase of 0.5 percent. Analysts said the impact of Britain’s shock EU exit referendum, held on June 23, had been muted on the high street.
RETAIL
Wal-Mart revenues down
A fall in international sales income for retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc held down total revenues and hit profits in the three months to Oct. 31, the company reported on Thursday. While sales in its main US market rose 2.5 percent over the year-ago quarter, to US$74.6 billion, international sales slumped 4.8 percent to US$28.4 billion. Nevertheless, overall domestic and international revenues from sales and other sources rose a tepid 0.7 percent over a year ago. Net profits fell 8.2 percent year on year to US$3 billion, or US$0.98 a share.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to