AUTOMAKERS
EU market sees upswing
Europe’s car market opened the year with a 6.8 percent sales upswing last month, building on the 10-year high reached last year as the region’s economy expanded. Registrations for the month advanced to 1.29 million vehicles, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said yesterday in a statement. Almost all the companies posted gains, led by the largest, Germany’s Volkswagen AG. Two of western Europe’s largest markets led the sales gains: Germany was up 12 percent, while Spain advanced 20 percent.
EMPLOYMENT
Australia beats forecast
Australian employment edged higher in the first month of the year, despite a plunge in full-time jobs, suggesting the central bank is likely to keep interest rates on hold. Jobs rose 16,000 from December last year, compared with economists’ forecast 15,000 gain, according to data released yesterday. The unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent from a revised 5.6 percent for December, while full-time jobs dropped 49,800, the first decline since September last year, the data showed.
ECONOMY
US inflation up sharply
US consumer inflation jumped sharply in the first month of this year, with one key measure posting its highest increase in a year, the government reported on Wednesday. The consumer price index, which tracks the costs of household goods and services, rose 0.5 percent last month, overshooting analysts expectations, according to the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly report. The core index, which excludes volatile food and fuel categories, rose 0.3 percent.
REAL ESTATE
Singapore home sales swell
Singapore home sales posted their best start to a year since 2014, adding to signs of a turnaround in the property market. Developers sold 522 units last month, up 37 percent from 382 homes a year earlier, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) data released on Wednesday. An index tracking private residential prices rose 0.8 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, building on a 0.7 percent gain the previous quarter, according to data from the URA.
ECONOMY
Eurozone maintains growth
The eurozone economy maintained its robust growth pace at the end of last year, setting the stage for another solid performance this year that may sway European Central Bank policy makers into winding down unprecedented stimulus. GDP increased 0.6 percent from the previous three months, Eurostat reported on Wednesday, confirming a Jan. 30 estimate. Growth slowed in Germany and Italy, while the pace of expansion accelerated in the Netherlands and Portugal, according to separate reports.
WINE AND SPIRITS
Cognac leads French surge
French exports of wine and spirits jumped by more than 1 billion euros (US$1.25 billion) last year to strike a record level, driven by a surge in sales of cognac, a trade body said on Wednesday. The number of 12-bottle cases shipped abroad rose by 5 percent to 198.6 million, while in terms of value exports climbed by 8.5 percent to 12.9 billion euros, according to data from the Federation of French Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS). Exports of cognac led the growth, climbing by 8.7 percent in volume and 10.8 percent in value, while exports of wine also rose by 6 percent in volume and 9.6 percent in value.
INTERNET
Amazon eyes French growth
Amazon.com Inc is to create 2,000 permanent jobs this year with an eye to the strengthening French economy. Amazon, which already added 1,500 jobs in France last year, is seeking workers to staff its distribution centers and sorting centers, Amazon France head Frederic Duval said in an interview. Further jobs will be created in delivery services. The expansion will increase the retailer’s French workforce by more than a third and bring its total number of employees to more than 7,500 by the end of this year.
NETWORKING
Cisco bullish on sales, profit
Cisco Systems Inc, which makes machinery that carries most of the world’s Internet data, gave a bullish forecast for sales and profit, after sales rose for the first time in eight quarters to US$11.9 billion in the three months ended on Jan. 27. Revenue in the current period will climb as much as 5 percent from a year earlier, the San Jose, California-based company said on Wednesday in a statement. That indicates sales as high as US$12.5 billion. Adjusted profit in the quarter ending in April will be as much as 66 cents a share, the company said.
AVIATION
Airbus profit nearly triples
Airbus SE said yesterday that increased deliveries, windfall gains from divestments and favorable exchange rates enabled profits to take off last year, even though it booked a “substantial” new charge on its A400M military transporter plane. The European aircraft maker said in a statement that net profit nearly tripled to 2.87 billion euros (US$3.6 billion) last year from 995 million euros a year earlier. Full-year sales held steady at 66.8 billion euros.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Credit Suisse cuts net loss
Credit Suisse Group AG reported on Wednesday a sharp cut in its annual net loss despite US President Donald Trump’s US tax reforms. It reported a loss of 983 million Swiss francs (US$1.05 billion) last year, down from SF2.7 billion the previous year. Over the year as a whole, the second-largest Swiss bank exceeded its cost reduction target, bringing its operating cost base down to SF17.7 billion.
INVESTMENT
KKR may sell MMI to HBH
KKR & Co is in advanced talks to sell Singapore’s MMI Holdings Ltd to a Chinese investor group, people with knowledge of the matter said, as it pursues an exit more than a decade after buying the hard-drive component maker. KKR is negotiating a sale of MMI, the oldest Asian investment listed in its portfolio, to a private equity fund affiliated with Beijing HBH Innovation Industry Fund, according to the people. An agreement could be reached as soon as next month, the people said.
E-COMMERCE
JD.com to sell logistics stake
JD.com Inc (京東) will raise about US$2.5 billion by selling a stake in its logistics business to investors including Hillhouse Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊). The agreement includes backing from China Merchants Group (招商局集團), Sequoia Capital China (紅杉資本) and China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), the Beijing-based e-commerce operator said on Wednesday. JD.com will retain an 81 percent stake after the deal is completed this quarter, which suggests a valuation on the business of more than US$10 billion.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last