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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure