GAMBLING
Top-end punters boost Macau
Gaming revenue in Macau rose for the first time in three years last year as high-end punters’ appetite for gambling recovered after a protracted government campaign against shows of wealth among public officials and slowing economic growth. Figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination bureau yesterday showed revenues for last year rose 19 percent to 265.7 billion patacas (US$33.13 billion). Analysts had expected full-year growth of 18-20 percent to US$33 billion to US$34 billion. Macau is clambering back after revenue plunged to five-year lows in 2014, but revenue is still far off the highs hit ahead of 2014, hovering only around monthly tolls seen in 2011, data from Thomson Reuters Datastream showed. Monthly gambling revenue last month was up 15 percent to 22.7 billion patacas.
COMMODITIES
Cotton streak set to continue
The longest winning streak in two decades propelled cotton to last year’s biggest increase among crop commodities, and hedge funds are ready for more gains this year. Of the nine components tracked by the Bloomberg Agriculture Subindex, only cotton and wheat contracts posted gains last year. The fiber led the way with an 11 percent advance as demand grew for US exports. Prices capped last year with 10 straight weekly gains, the best streak since 1998. Cotton was also one of the few crops about which hedge funds became more positive during the course of the year. Money managers held a net-long position, or the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a decline, of 102,402 futures and options as of Dec. 26, up from 76,052 at the end of 2016, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
ENTERTAINMENT
Bar offers bitcoin party
A Singapore bar that bills itself as the world’s highest cryptocurrency club offered a New Year’s Eve package that included a limousine pick-up and butler service — but it cost a whole bitcoin. Skyline, on the 45th floor of a skyscraper overlooking the waterfront, promised a luxury-filled night out, with Champagne and oysters and caviar, but it was not cheap, with the price of bitcoin hovering around US$13,000 on Sunday. The party at Skyline is called “Bianco,” with revelers dressed in white enjoying a night of drinking and dancing before watching the New Year’s fireworks display over the waterfront. While the club has run the night before, it was the first time it offered a bitcoin deal, and customers could also pay in regular cash.
SINGAPORE
Growth beats estimate
Singapore’s economy expanded 3.5 percent last year, more than double the initial government forecast as the country benefited from the global economic upswing, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said in his New Year message on Sunday. Lee said the city-state would press on with economic restructuring and infrastructure projects such its fifth airport terminal as well as review healthcare policies to prepare for an aging population. “All these are essential investments in our future. They require time and resources, and will stretch way beyond this term of government. We have to plan well ahead for them,” Lee said in a statement released by his office. Singapore’s growth comes at the top end of the most recent trade ministry prediction of 3 to 3.5 percent and compares with the median 3.3 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey. The government is to release preliminary GDP figures for the fourth quarter today.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to