JAPAN
Sentiment unchanged
A key quarterly economic survey released yesterday by the Bank of Japan shows sentiment among large manufacturers remained unchanged, as worries about global trade tensions persisted. The tankan survey showed that sentiment remained flat at 19 for a second time after three quarters of decline. Some analysts had expected a downturn in sentiment. The survey did project that sentiment would drop by four points to 15 over the next three months. Still, analysts said the news was heartening after the economy contracted at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter.
BANKING
Indian workers laid off
Standard Chartered PLC has cut jobs in its Indian retail banking business, citing users’ switch to mobile and Internet transactions. “A small number of retail banking roles have fallen away,” the London-based lender said in an e-mail. “We are working closely with these employees and relevant parties on existing opportunities and fair separation packages, as well as offering outplacement services.” Standard Chartered declined to disclose the number of jobs affected, while Reuters, which reported the move earlier, said the firm laid off more than 200 retail banking employees.
AUTOMAKERS
European sales slump
European companies could not shake the slump that has shadowed them since September as new car registrations declined for the third consecutive month. Passenger-car registrations slid 8.1 percent in the EU and in the European Free Trade Association last month from a year earlier, bringing year-to-date growth to 0.6 percent, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said. Analysts said another bad month could throw this year into negative territory overall and automakers would need to sell 1.05 million cars this month keep pace with last year.
CHIPMAKERS
Qualcomm seeks iPhone ban
Qualcomm Inc is asking a Chinese court to ban sales of Apple Inc’s latest iPhone models XS and XR after winning a preliminary injunction against older models, the company said on Thursday. On Monday, a Chinese court had ordered a sales ban of some older Apple iPhone models for breaching two Qualcomm patents, though intellectual property lawyers said enforcement of the ban was likely still a distant threat. Apple on Monday said that all of its phone models remained on sale in China and that it had filed a request for reconsideration with the court.
UNITED STATES
Budget deficit widens
The nation posted its widest November budget deficit on record as spending was double revenue. Outlays jumped 18 percent to US$411 billion last month, while receipts were little changed at US$206 billion, the Department of the Treasury said in a monthly report on Thursday. That left a US$205 billion shortfall, compared with a US$139 billion gap a year earlier.
ENERGY
Oil leases sale disappoints
A federal sale of oil leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska has again drawn a modest response. The US Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday received 16 bids on 16 tracts covering 705km2, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. The bureau had offered 254 tracts on more than 11,330km2. Federal officials said the modest bidding could be attributed to the lack of access to the most prospective areas.
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