GERMANY
November orders plunge
Industrial orders fell more sharply than expected in November last year, official data showed yesterday, adding to an emerging picture of softer growth in the final quarter of last year. Businesses reported that new contracts were down 1 percent month-on-month, federal statistics authority Destatis said. Excluding large orders for items such as aircraft, which often swing sharply from month to month, the fall still came in at 0.8 percent. Companies reported that orders from domestic customers rose 2.4 percent, but that foreign orders fell 3.2 percent.
UNITED KINGDOM
New car sales fall sharply
New car sales last year fell at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis a decade ago, hit by a slump in demand for diesel, stricter emissions rules and waning consumer confidence due to Brexit, an industry body said. Demand dropped by nearly 7 percent last year to 2.37 million vehicles, the largest decrease since registrations nosedived 11.3 percent in 2008, preliminary data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed.
IRAN
Bank mulls propping up rial
The central bank has proposed slashing four zeros from the rial, official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, after the currency plunged in a year marked by an economic crisis fueled by US sanctions. “A bill to remove four zeros from the national currency was presented to the government by the central bank yesterday and I hope this matter can be concluded as soon as possible,” IRNA quoted central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati as saying. The currency was trading at about 110,000 rials per US dollar on the unofficial market on Sunday.
RETAIL
Bid to stop Sears razing fails
Sears Holdings Corp is preparing to potentially wind down the iconic retailer after chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid to buy several hundred stores out of bankruptcy fell short of bankers’ requirements, people with knowledge of the matter said. The retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after a series of meetings on Friday in which its advisers weighed the merits of a US$4.4 billion bid by Lampert’s hedge fund to buy Sears as a going concern, the people said.
JAPAN
Abe tries to avoid seizure
The government would consider countermeasures to protect Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp assets in South Korea from a seizure sought in response to a wartime forced-labor complaint, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. It is “very regrettable that former workers from the Korean Peninsula are taking action for seizing the assets,” Abe told Japan Broadcasting Corp’s Sunday Debate program. He said he has “requested relevant departments to study specific measures based on international law.”
MALAYSIA
Goldman banker denied bail
A court yesterday declined to grant bail to former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng (吳崇華), pending his extradition to the US where he faces charges related to suspected money laundering of funds siphoned off from state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Ng has been detained in Kuala Lumpur since Nov. 1 last year, shortly after the US Department of Justice announced charges against him, another Goldman Sachs official, Tim Leissner, and Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho (劉特佐) over the alleged theft of 1MDB funds.
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
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
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