UNITED STATES
Manufacturing index rises
Factories expanded at a brisk pace last month, a likely sign of strength for the US economy as new orders, production and employment all improved. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Friday said that its manufacturing index rose to 58.8 percent from 56.3 percent in July. Anything above 50 signals that factory activity is increasing. The measure now stands at its highest level since April 2011, pointing to solid economic growth. Fourteen of eighteen manufacturing industries surveyed by ISM posted growth, including the machinery, petroleum and coal products, and computer and electronic products sectors.
TECHNOLOGY
Tinder Apple’s top seller
Tinder for the first time became the top-grossing app in Apple Inc’s online shop, topping the likes of Netflix, Pandora and hit mobile games like Clash Royale, according to rankings posted online by market data firm App Annie on Friday. The company announced this week the worldwide roll-out of a new “Gold” service with features including the ability of subscribers to see who out there has “liked” them. Tinder Gold is to be available on Android-powered smartphones in about a month.
ELECTRONICS
Foxconn US plant vote set
The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is set to vote this week on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s US$3 billion incentive package for a Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) plant. The committee issued a notice on Friday saying a vote is set for Tuesday. The Wisconsin State Assembly has already passed the bill; committee approval would set up a State Senate vote. The committee also is scheduled to finish the state budget Tuesday but it is unclear if that will happen. Republicans are still trying to reach consensus on how to shore up a nearly US$1 billion shortfall in the state’s transportation fund.
OIL AND GAS
Iraqi exports slip slightly
Iraq’s oil exports slipped to 3.216 million barrels per day (bpd) last month from 3.230 million bpd in July, as no shipments were made from the northern Kirkuk field, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil said yesterday. All the volumes shipped last month came from the southern fields, it said in a statement. Kirkuk is the only field supervised by the government in the north. The volume accounts for shipments from the fields supervised by the central government in Baghdad and does not include those from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The average sales price last month was US$46.22 per barrel, generating US$4.6 billion in revenue.
BANKING
Merrill Lynch pays US$415m
Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch unit paid US$415 million last year to resolve allegations that it misused customers’ cash. On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally settled a case against the former bank executive who it said was ultimately responsible. His penalty was considerably lower: Nothing. Former Merrill Lynch head of regulatory reporting William Tirrell negligently caused the firm to violate securities rules, the SEC said in an order on Friday. The regulator ordered Tirrell to “cease and desist” from any future transgressions.
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],”
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
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