CURRENCIES
Bitcoin drops on probe
Bitcoin prices plummeted after the People’s Bank of China announced it was investigating exchange platforms trading in the virtual currency. The Chinese central bank said it had dispatched inspection teams to several of the nation’s major bitcoin trading platforms in Beijing and Shanghai. The move, announced on Wednesday, sent the Bitcoin Price Index, an average of the major exchanges, to drop more than 15 percent to an intraday low of US$752.11 on Wednesday. Prices recovered slightly to US$768.76 yesterday, still far below its highs last week. The investigation was targeting foreign currency exchange, market manipulation, money laundering and financial security risks, the bank said.
RETAIL
Uniqlo profit jumps 45%
Uniqlo’s parent company yesterday said that quarterly net profit jumped by almost half from a year ago, as it refocused on a strategy aimed at luring thrifty shoppers. Fast Retailing Co’s net profit rose 45 percent to ¥70 billion (US$609 million) in the fiscal first quarter to November, while revenue edged up 1.6 percent to ¥529 billion. The company, Asia’s biggest retailer, said sales were under pressure in September and October owing to “unseasonably warm weather.” However, “once temperatures dropped in November, same-store sales picked up,” it said in a statement, referring to locations that have been open more than a year. The company left unchanged its annual forecast for a ¥100 billion net profit on revenue of ¥1.85 trillion.
TECHNOLOGY
Alphabet shifts to balloons
Google parent company Alphabet Inc on Wednesday confirmed that it is opting for balloons instead of drones in its quest to deliver Internet service from the sky. Alphabet said that it gave up on its Internet drone project, called Titan, about a year ago. Its staff moved elsewhere at Google X, including a project called Loon focused on creating a network of high-altitude balloons that would provide Internet service to people on the ground no matter how remote. Some people from the team also shifted to Project Wing, which is creating delivery drones.
LUXURY GOODS
Richemont posts sales gain
Richemont, the maker of Cartier necklaces and IWC Schaffhausen timepieces, reported an unexpected gain in Christmas-season revenue, boosted by demand for luxury jewelry and a rebound in watch sales at its own stores. Revenue gained 5 percent excluding currency shifts in the three months through December, the Geneva-based company said yesterday. Sales improved in all regions and businesses, giving Richemont some respite after revenue fell 12 percent in the first half. Revenue in Asia-Pacific, which accounted for about a third of total sales in the first half, gained 10 percent, the first increase in two years.
RETAIL
Holiday lifts Tesco sales
Supermarket chain Tesco PLC, Britain’s biggest retailer, yesterday announced rising sales during the festive period, which followed a strong third quarter. Chief executive Dave Lewis said that the company delivered a third successful Christmas in the UK and sales rose for an eighth consecutive quarter. Total group sales jumped 6.5 percent during Tesco’s third quarter ending November compared with a year earlier. In the following six weeks, sales grew 4.3 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last