GERMANY
Jobless figures dip with fall
The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month as the buoyant labor market benefited from a traditional autumn increase in hiring, official data showed on Thursday. The Federal Labor Agency said the number of people registered as unemployed stood at 2.389 million last month — the first time the figure has dropped below 2.4 million since 1990. There were 60,000 fewer people out of work than in September.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Starbucks to sell Tazo
Starbucks Corp on Thursday reported disappointing sales growth at its coffee shops around the world, and announced that it would sell its Tazo tea brand to Unilever PLC for US$384 million. The coffee chain also said that fourth-quarter sales rose 2 percent at its established locations worldwide. Analysts had expected a rise of 3.3 percent, FactSet said. Overall, the company reported net income of US$788.5 million, or US$0.54 per share, in the three months ending Oct. 1.
FINANCE
Credit Suisse profits jump
Credit Suisse Group AG has reported a nearly sixfold jump in third-quarter net profit behind a “very strong” performance by its wealth management business amid continued cost savings and a restructuring plan at the Swiss bank. The Zurich-based bank on Thursday predicted strong global economic growth in the fourth quarter of the year that could underpin its results despite political uncertainty. Net income rose to 244 million Swiss francs (US$244 million) in the third quarter, up from SF41 million a year earlier. Adjusted net revenues fell 2 percent to SF5 billion.
SINGAPORE
Goldman Sachs probed
Prosecutors and police are looking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s relationship with the scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Singaporean economic crime unit and city prosecutors have interviewed current and former Goldman executives who worked on bond offerings from 1MDB. 1MDB, founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, is facing money laundering probes in at least six countries including the US, Switzerland and Singapore.
RETAIL
HBC confirms Signa bid
Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Co (HBC) on Thursday confirmed having received an “incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited offer” from Austria’s Signa to buy its German department stores Kaufhof. HBC said in a statement that it had received the offer, which had first been disclosed in the German media. Reports said Signa had offered 3 billion euros (US$3.5 billion) for Kaufhof, but HBC pointed out that there was “no evidence of financing” in the bid.
AUSTRALIA
Consumers pull back
Heavily indebted households are pulling down the shutters on consumption as retail sales suffered the weakest three-month stretch in seven years. Sales were flat in September, after slumping 0.5 percent the prior month and dropping 0.3 percent in July, government data showed yesterday. That is the worst run since 2010. September’s stagnant retail sales were dragged down by a 1.7 percent drop in other retailing, a category that includes newspaper and book shops, recreational goods and pharmaceutical toiltetry and cosmetic goods. That was offset by a 2.1 percent surge in department stores.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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