CANADA
Trade deficit expands
The trade deficit in goods in May widened from C$1.9 billion to C$2.8 billion (US$1.45 billion to US$2.14 billion) as imports rose while exports edged down, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Pushed by a 17.7 percent rise in orders of aircraft and other transportation equipment — the fifth consecutive monthly rise for that category — Canadian imports rose 1.7 percent to C$51.1 billion in May, it said. The year-on-year increase was 3.5 percent. Exports for the month slipped 0.1 percent to C$48.3 billion.
ETHIOPIA
‘Pro-poor’ budget passed
Parliament passed a 346.9 billion birr (US$12.58 billion) budget, about two-thirds of it poverty reduction programs involving health, education and food security. In televised comments, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the budget as “pro-poor” and said that the government still needs US$7.5 billion to finish so-called megaprojects, including sugar factories and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. As a result, it would not begin new projects in the 2018-to-2019 fiscal year, he said.
OIL AND GAS
BP to buy US shale basins
BP PLC has emerged as the front-runner to buy BHP Billiton Ltd’s onshore oil and gas operations in the US, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters earlier reported that BP made an offer of more than US$10 billion. The assets up for grabs include about 323,749 hectares in four US shale basins, including the Permian Basin, one of the most productive oilfields in the world. The London-based firm has made the highest offer for the assets, which BHP would prefer to sell in a single package, the person said.
STOCK MARKET
Swiss bourse goes digital
SIX Group, the owner of Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange securities exchange in Zurich, is creating a platform for trading digital assets, boosting a nascent industry that some countries are trying to suffocate. The new platform is to offer a “fully integrated, end-to-end trading, settlement and custody service,” the world’s first to do so, the bourse said in a statement on Friday.
MEDIA
Gawker blogs might be sold
Univision Holdings Inc is considering selling its English-language Web sites, including the former gawker.com blog properties, people with knowledge of the situation said. The move would put a group of sites including gizmodo.com, deadspin.com and jezebel.com on the block, the people said. Univision is working with financial advisers on the process, they said. Univision bought the former Gawker Media LLC Web sites for US$135 million at a 2016 bankruptcy auction.
TECHNOLOGY
Sonos plans initial listing
Wireless speaker maker Sonos Inc filed for a US initial public offering. The Santa Barbara, California-based company filed with an offering size of US$100 million, a placeholder amount that is likely to change. It plans to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SONO, a regulatory filing on Friday said. Sonos, a pioneer in the market for Internet-connected speakers, is targeting a valuation of US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion in the initial listing, people said.
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
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