STOCK MARKETS
Toronto bourse closes early
Technical problems forced Canada’s largest bourse, the Toronto Stock Exchange, to close early on Friday, said its owner, TMX Group Ltd. TMX early on Friday afternoon said on Twitter that users were “unable to connect to our exchanges,” adding about one hour before the normal close of trading that its markets would be shut down. “TMX today experienced an internal technical issue” that affected service on the Toronto and Montreal bourses, it said. “We have identified the issue and are working to rectify.” Trading is expected to resume tomorrow, it said.
GERMANY
Unemployment unchanged
Government figures showed that the unemployment rate remained unchanged this month as the labor market stayed strong. The Federal Employment Agency on Friday said that the unemployment rate remained at 5.3 percent when adjusted for seasonal factors. In real terms, the number of unemployed people dropped 74,358 to 2.38 million jobless this month. That brought the unadjusted unemployment rate down to 5.3 percent, compared with 5.5 percent a month earlier.
DEBT
Agencies ‘negative’ on UK
Worries about a messy Brexit continue to dog Britain’s economy, warranting keeping the “negative” outlook on its sovereign debt, ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and Fitch Ratings Inc said on Friday. The agencies affirmed their “AA” high-grade rating on the government’s long-term sovereign debt, but pointed to lingering uncertainty about the split from the EU.
REAL ESTATE
HNA eyes sale of NYC tower
Less than one year after HNA Group Co (海航集團) paid US$2.21 billion for 245 Park Ave in New York City — a purchase that raised eyebrows for its near-record price — the troubled Chinese conglomerate is in talks to sell the Manhattan office tower. SL Green Realty Corp, a lender to 245 Park Ave, is in discussions with HNA to purchase the building, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In addition to a sale, another option being discussed is a debt recapitalization of the property, the people said.
AEROSPACE
Boeing in talks to buy KLX
Boeing Co is in talks to acquire KLX Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the world’s largest planemaker seeks to ramp up a new division providing maintenance, spare parts and other services to airlines. An agreement might come as soon as tomorrow, although a deal could still be derailed, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. KLX is a distributor of aircraft spare parts and oil and gas equipment, and had a market value of US$3.7 billion as of Thursday’s close.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler Q1 profit falls 11%
Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, saw its first-quarter net profit fall 11 percent from a year earlier, when the company had one-time gains from financial factors and the sale of real estate. The Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker on Friday said that profits also slipped at its van and bus businesses. For the group as a whole, net profit totaled 2.35 billion euros (US$2.85 billion), down from 2.65 billion euros in the same period last year.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained