INTEREST RATES
Canada raises policy rate
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent. The central bank said in a statement that while the economy was going strong, with jobs on the rise and inflation in check, “uncertainty about the future of [the North American Free Trade Agreement] is weighing increasingly on the outlook.” For this year, the bank put Canada’s GDP growth at 2.2 percent, slowing to 1.6 percent next year — a slower pace than the estimated 3 percent growth expected for last year.
MACROECONOMICS
Businesses optimistic: Fed
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday said that the economy was growing at a moderate pace at the start of the year, with the majority of business contacts optimistic about prospects for this year. In its latest Beige Book survey of business conditions nationwide, the Fed said that wages were rising at a modest pace. Some Fed districts were seeing a broader range of industries giving pay raises, especially in areas where employers are having a harder time filling positions.
REAL ESTATE
UK market edging up
UK house prices are edging higher, but the market remains subdued. A survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed a national gauge climbed to 8 last month — a result that was the highest since June, but only consistent with a marginal increase in prices. London remains a weak spot, with a reading of minus-32, although that is the capital’s least negative measure since April. The institute’s measure was as high as 58 in 2013 and averaged 29 during the past five years.
TRADE
Mexico, EU deal ‘in sight’
Mexico and the EU should complete a new free-trade deal “within the next few weeks,” despite the fact that there are still a number of difficult areas to agree on, Mexican Deputy Economy Minister Juan Carlos Baker said on Wednesday. In a radio interview after the conclusion of the eighth round of talks between Mexico and the EU, Baker said negotiations are to resume in the week beginning Feb. 5, with a quick end in sight.
BANKING
Barclays firing senior staff
Barclays PLC is to eliminate as many as 100 senior staff at its investment bank as Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank chief executive officer Tim Throsby overhauls the underperforming division, people familiar with the decision said. The cutbacks are to fall mainly at the managing director and director levels, and are evenly split between Europe and the US, the people said. Employees in the banking division are being informed this week, with reductions of traders in fixed-income and equity divisions to start next week, they said.
ENERGY
Toshiba sells Westinghouse
Toshiba Corp has agreed to sell claims in its Westinghouse US nuclear unit to bolster its capital by ¥410 billion (US$3.69 billion) by March, helping it to erase negative shareholder equity and avoid being delisted. The Tokyo-based company plans to complete the sale of the claims to an entity controlled by Baupost Group LLC this month, it said in a statement yesterday. The deal is to generate after-tax profit of ¥170 billion. Toshiba shares rose as much as 2.9 percent in Tokyo.
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