ENERGY
BP earnings slide 5%
Oil producer BP’s second-quarter earnings slipped 5 percent as the Deepwater Horizon disaster continued to weigh on the company. A key measure of earnings, called underlying replacement cost profit, fell to US$684 million from US$720 million in the same period last year. The figure, which excludes one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, is the industry’s preferred gauge of earnings. CEO Bob Dudley said BP is still working to adjust to an era of lower oil prices with a “tight focus on costs, efficiency and discipline in capital spending.” Oil companies have been cutting costs and selling assets to adjust to lower oil prices, which early last year plunged to their lowest levels in more than a decade. BP said the average price it received during the second quarter this year rose 17 percent to US$46.27 a barrel. That pushed BP’s net income to US$144 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.42 billion.
MACROECONOMICS
Eurozone grows 0.6% in Q2
Growth in the eurozone accelerated slightly in the second quarter as Europe’s tentative economic recovery remained on track, official data showed yesterday. The economy grew 0.6 percent compared with the quarter before, an acceleration from the 0.5 percent rate of the first quarter, Eurostat statistics agency said. The figure was in line with analysts’ forecasts published by data company Factset. The fresh data should reinforce hopes that despite uncertainty and the turbulence of Brexit, the eurozone is emerging from the worst of the financial crisis that began in 2008. The growth figures come a day after figures showed unemployment in the eurozone had dropped to its lowest level in eight years. Compared with the same quarter last year, economic output in the eurozone rose 2.1 percent, Eurostat said.
INDIA
Manufacturing output falls
A private gauge showed that India’s manufacturing output slid to the lowest since the financial crisis as the rollout of a new nationwide sales tax disrupted supply chains across the nation. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 47.9 last month, its lowest since February 2009. A number below 50 indicates contraction. However, the outlook for the year ahead remains positive, with companies expecting more clarity about the goods and services tax to boost growth, IHS Markit principal economist Pollyanna De Lima said in a report yesterday. “The weakening trend for demand, relatively muted cost inflationary pressures and discounted factory gate charges provide powerful tools for monetary policy easing, which has the potential to revive economic growth,” De Lima wrote.
AUSTRALIA
Central bank maintains rates
The central bank kept interest rates unchanged and said that a rising currency could subdue inflation and weigh on the outlook for growth and employment. The Australian dollar has surged more than 11 percent this year, hampering the Reserve Bank of Australia’s efforts to transition the economy to growth led by exports like education and tourism. That prompted bank Governor Philip Lowe to end 16 months of gentle cautioning that a rising exchange rate could merely “complicate” the handover. “The bank would be particularly concerned if the Australian dollar remains stubbornly high, should the terms of trade decline as the bank is currently expecting,” said Paul Brennan, chief economist for Australia at Citigroup Inc.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day