COMPUTERS
Lenovo posts surprise loss
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) posted a surprise quarterly loss after losing its grip on the global PC market, while its smartphone unit continued to bleed money. China’s largest PC maker reported a net loss of US$72 million in the three months ended June — its first in six quarters and well below projections for an income of US$32.9 million. Revenue for the period slipped a tad to US$10 billion, a whisker above predictions for US$9.9 billion. Lenovo yesterday said it would invest US$1.2 billion on research into artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, virtual reality and other emergent fields over the next four years in an effort to catch the next wave of computing gadgets.
CURRENCIES
Australia to regulate bitcoins
Australia is set to regulate virtual currency exchanges, such as bitcoins, and boost the powers of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre as it cracks down on money laundering and terrorism financing. The changes came two weeks after the financial intelligence agency took the nation’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth, to court for alleged “serious and systemic non-compliance” of money laundering and terror financing laws. It follows similar reforms by Japan to regulate virtual currency, after Tokyo found itself at the epicenter of a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal following the collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.
PROPERTY
Fewer China cities see hikes
China’s home prices rose in fewer cities last month, adding to signs the property market was cooling. New-home prices, excluding government-subsidized housing, gained from the previous month in 56 of 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 60 in June. the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Prices fell in nine cities and were unchanged in five. Prices in Beijing slid 0.1 percent last month and were unchanged in Shanghai. Values dropped 0.2 percent in Shenzhen and increased 0.4 percent in Guangzhou. Data earlier this week showed new home sales by value last month grew at the slowest pace in more than two years.
MACROECONOMICS
Malaysian GDP up 5.8%
The Malaysian economy grew faster than economists forecast in the second quarter, fueled by stronger consumer spending and a pickup in manufacturing. GDP rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier, after climbing 5.6 percent in the first quarter, Bank Negara Malaysia said yesterday. GDP rose a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent from the previous three months, data showed. Central bank Governor Muhammad Ibrahim told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that growth would probably exceed the official forecast of 4.8 percent this year. The bank last month held its benchmark interest rate at 3 percent as inflation pressures eased and growth prospects strengthened.
MACROECONOMICS
US’ July output dips 0.1%
A slump in the auto industry drove US factory output down last month and has kept it flat for months. The US Federal Reserve on Thursday said that factory production slid 0.1 percent last month, pulled down by a 3.5 percent plunge in output of cars, trucks and auto parts. The drop in auto production was partially offset by a 0.2 percent rise in other manufacturing output. Overall industrial production — which adds output by mines and utilities — rose 0.2 percent, the Fed said. Mining output rose 0.5 percent, while utility rose 1.6 percent.
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