UNITED STATES
Hiring hits seven-year low
A measure of hiring by US companies has fallen to a seven-year low and fewer employers are raising pay, a business survey found. Just one-fifth of the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said that their companies have added to their workforces over the past three months. That is down from one-third in July. Job totals were unchanged at 69 percent of companies, up from 57 percent in July. The survey also found that 43 percent of companies reported shortages of skilled workers, although that figure has declined for three straight surveys.
UNITED KINGDOM
Big Four boost market share
The so-called “Big Four” accounting giants have strengthened their grip and now audit all of the companies listed on London’s FTSE 100 shares index, the Financial Reporting Council watchdog said in a statement on Monday. Last year, the country’s four largest players — Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, Ernst & Young Global, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers — advised and monitored all of the top 100 listed businesses, up from 99 in 2017, the council said.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Beyond Meat eyes big sales
Beyond Meat Inc is facing a growing field of competitors, but on Monday it raised its sales forecast for the year, citing its leading role in a new wave of vegetarian products intended to more closely mimic meat. For the three months ending on Sept. 28, the California-based company’s sales more than tripled year-on-year to US$92 million, while net income reached US$4.1 million, marking its first quarterly profit. The company, which went public in May, said that it expects revenue of US$265 million to US$275 million for the year. It previously forecast sales of more than US$240 million.
AVIATION
ANA profit revised downward
ANA Holdings Inc on Tuesday cut its full-year operating income guidance by 15 percent, citing a decline in cargo demand stemming from US-China trade issues, a slowdown in business demand and intensifying competition in the budget sector. Japan’s largest airline by revenue reported operating income of ¥78.8 billion (US$723.54 million) for the six months that ended on Sept. 30, down 25 percent from a year earlier. It lowered its full-year operating income forecast to ¥140 billion, from ¥165 billion previously.
SECURITIES
Nomura rebounds in Q3
Nomura Holdings Inc posted a profit for a third straight quarter as trading revenue made up for a slump in the domestic retail business. Net income was ¥138.6 billion in the three months ending on Sept. 30, compared with a ¥11.2 billion loss a year earlier, Japan’s biggest brokerage reported yesterday. A one-time, ¥73.3 billion boost from the sale of a stake in the firm’s Nomura Research Institute Ltd affiliate buoyed the results.
ELECTRONICS
Apple launches AirPods Pro
Apple Inc on Monday launched Apple AirPods Pro, an upgraded version of its premium wireless earphones with a noise cancelation feature. Priced at US$249, the earphones are to start shipping today, Apple said, adding that the new AirPods are also sweat and water resistant. The company is doubling down on its wearables and services units to increase revenue, as it has faced slowing iPhone sales over the past few quarters.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts