MAcROECONOMICS
US housing starts rebound
Construction of new housing last month rebounded to its highest level in four months, the US Department of Commerce reported yesterday. During a unseasonably warm month, total housing starts rose 3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.29 million units, its highest level since October last year. The result was in line with analyst forecasts and 6.2 percent above the results recorded in the same month last year. Meanwhile, posting a second consecutive month of gains, single-family units jumped 6.5 percent to 872,000 new units, a level not surpassed since October 2007, as the tight housing sector showed signs of adding supply in a tight market. However, the number of new housing permits dropped 6.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.21 million, suggesting the pace of construction might slow.
MACROECONOMICS
Australian jobless rate up
Last month’s unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed as the Australian economy shed jobs, indicating spare capacity remains a problem in the labor market, and wages and inflation are likely to remain subdued. Employment fell 6,400 from January, with the jobless rate rising from 5.7 percent to 5.9 percent, the highest level since January last year, official data released yesterday showed. Full-time jobs last month rose by 27,100, while part-time employment dropped 33,500, with participation rate holding at 64.6 percent in the month, the data showed.
AUTOMAKERS
European car sales slow
European car sales growth cooled last month, as political uncertainty clouds the area’s economic outlook and the market becomes increasingly saturated after three years of expansion. After a 10 percent jump in January, industrywide registrations last month rose 2.1 percent to 1.1 million vehicles, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said yesterday. Volkswagen AG’s European sales slumped 1.5 percent, causing its market share to drop to from 23.9 percent a year earlier to 23 percent. Registrations of PSA Group’s Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars declined 3.1 percent, while future partner Adam Opel AG slipped 1.2 percent.
ELECTRONICS
GoPro announces layoffs
Mini-camera maker GoPro Inc on Wednesday announced plans to trim another 270 jobs in a quest to become profitable. GoPro, which soared to popularity with cameras used for social media and extreme sports photography, said the new round of cuts was part of an internal reorganization to “do fewer things better.” It follows a cut in November last year of 15 percent of its staff, about 200 jobs at the time. GoPro said that revenue in the current quarter was on track to be at the high end of its forecast of US$190 million to US$210 million.
MINING
Agarwal to buy Anglo stake
Indian mining billionaire Anil Agarwal plans to buy as much as £2 billion (US$2.5 billion) of Anglo American PLC shares in the market after a merger proposal failed last year. The full stake would equate to about 13 percent of Anglo’s stock, making Agarwal the second-largest shareholder after South Africa’s Public Investment Corp. It will give him a strong voice in the company’s strategy, as the blue-chip British mining firm cements its recovery from a slump in commodity prices. While Agarwal said the purchase was a family investment and that he would not make a takeover bid, the brash Indian tycoon offered to merge part of his mining empire with Anglo American last year, only to be rebuffed.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last