BANKING
UBS settles with US$230m
Swiss banking giant UBS AG is to pay US$230 million to settle charges it misrepresented mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, New York State officials announced on Wednesday. The settlement with the New York Attorney General resolves allegations that UBS sold loan securities that were of dodgy quality, but packaged as if they were low-risk. The agreement includes a US$41 million cash payment to New York State and US$189 million in customer relief for New York homeowners.
ELECTRONICS
Best Buy to cut Huawei ties
US consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co plans to sever ties with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies Co (華為) amid US government criticism of the smartphone maker, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Best Buy follows US wireless carriers AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc in distancing themselves from Huawei. US officials are concerned about whether the company is too closely affiliated with the Chinese government. A Best Buy representative declined to comment.
INTERNET
Dropbox ups IPO price range
Dropbox Inc upped the price range for shares in its initial public offering (IPO), marketing the stock for US$18 to US$20 apiece and boosting its potential market valuation by almost 10 percent. The file-sharing company is now aiming to raise as much as US$720 million, offering 36 million shares of its Class A common stock, according to a filing on Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It had previously set the price range at US$16 to US$18 per share to raise as much as US$648 million.
AUSTRALIA
Unemployment hits 5.6%
The country added fewer jobs than forecast last month and unemployment edged higher as more people sought work, suggesting that the central bank is likely to keep interest rates unchanged, government data showed yesterday. Jobs rose 17,500 from January, when they advanced a downwardly revised 12,500, compared with economists’ forecast of a 20,000 gain. The unemployment rate climbed to 5.6 percent last month, with full-time jobs increasing to 64,900 and part-time employment falling to 47,400, data showed.
BRAZIL
Rates cut to new low
The Banco Central do Brasil on Wednesday again slashed its interest rate to a new low, this time setting it at 6.5 percent, to try to help boost growth in Latin America’s biggest economy. The cut in the Selic rate of 25 basis points from 6.75 percent, which met analyst expectations, is the 12th consecutive rate reduction, as the nation tries to emerge from a stifling two-year recession. The bank left the door open for another rate cut at its next meeting from May 15 to 16, saying that such a move would be “appropriate.”
TRADE
African leaders ink deal
African leaders on Wednesday signed what is being called the largest free-trade agreement since the creation of the WTO. The deal creates a continental market of 1.2 billion people, with a combined GDP of more than US$3.4 trillion. The aim is to have an agreement, signed by 44 of the African Union’s 55 member states, enter into force by the end of this year. States now must ratify the deal, but the number of countries needed to put the agreement into force has not yet been agreed upon.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure