UNITED STATES
Month of robust job creation
The US saw robust job creation again last month, with unemployment falling back to a 16-year low, restoring the economy to the employment level seen before the 2008 crisis. The economy added 209,000 net new positions for the month, well above analyst forecasts, although below the 231,000 increase in June, the Department of Labor reported on Friday. However, average monthly job creation so far this year is 185,000, slightly below the average recorded last year and well below 2015 and 2014. Last month’s gain pushed the unemployment rate back down a tenth of a point to 4.3 percent, the lowest level in 16 years.
CHINA
Former bank head jailed
The nation’s anti-graft watchdog yesterday said the former head of the supervisory board at China Development Bank (中國國家開發銀行), the country’s largest policy lender, has been jailed for 14 years and fined 3.5 million yuan (US$520,020) for receiving bribes. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement on its Web site that Yao Zhongmin (姚中民) accepted bribes amounting to 36.2 million yuan directly or indirectly through his brother between 2002 and 2013.
ISRAEL
S&P raises outlook
Improved economic growth and efforts to rein in spending prompted Standard & Poor’s to raise the outlook on the country’s debt profile, the credit rating firm announced on Friday. While S&P held Israel’s debt rating stable at “A+,” it improved the outlook to “positive” from “stable,” which means it could raise the grade a notch in the next two years, the company said in a statement. The agency praised the government for “measures that restrain future expenditure growth” which in turn “could enable the government to resist ongoing spending pressures.”
TECHNOLOGY
Google works on ‘magazine’
Alphabet Inc’s Google is working with publishers on a news product called Stamp that would serve up articles in a mobile magazine-like design, similar to Snapchat’s Discover service, according to a person familiar with the matter. Stamp evolved from media relationships Google already has for another one of its products, called AMP, which is meant to help load articles faster. The Wall Street Journal reported the talks earlier. “The success of the open source AMP project is down to the constant collaboration with publishers that involves working early on upcoming features,” Google said on Friday in a statement.
INVESTMENT
Berkshire profits fall
Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, said on Friday that its second-quarter profit fell 15 percent as costs rose for its various businesses and it earned less from its investments. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported net income of US$4.26 billion, or US$2,592 per Class A share, during the quarter. That is down from the US$5 billion, or US$3,042 per share, a year ago. Operating earnings came to US$2,505 per Class A share, down from US$2,803 a year ago. Revenue rose 6 percent to US$57.52 billion. The company said costs rose at its insurance businesses, railroads and financial products providers.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by