UNITED STATES
Trade deficit extends decline
The nation’s trade deficit continued to tumble in November last year, hitting its lowest level in three years as imports of crude oil, computers and industrial supplies fell off sharply, the government reported on Tuesday. The trade gap fell 8.2 percent to US$43.1 billion, even less than economists had expected and the lowest since October 2016, Department of Commerce data showed. Imports fell 1.7 percent to US$251.7 billion for the month, the lowest level in more than two years, as Americans purchased fewer mobile phones, artwork, civilian aircraft and computers.
CANADA
November deficit hits low
The nation posted a C$1.1 billion (US$847.1 million) trade deficit in November last year, down sharply from the previous month amid disruptions caused by a railroad strike, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday. Exports fell 1.4 percent to C$48.7 billion, the lowest level for November since 2013, while imports slid 2.4 percent to C$49.8 billion. Meanwhile, the trade deficit for October was revised upward to C$1.6 billion, from a previous estimate of C$1.1 billion.
GERMANY
Industrial orders decline
New orders for industrial firms fell in November last year, official data showed on Monday, continuing a run of weak data for Europe’s powerhouse. Fresh contracts fell 1.3 percent month-on-month, the Federal Statistical Office said in seasonally adjusted figures, the second monthly slip in a row and short of analysts’ expectations for slight growth. Excluding volatile large orders for items such as aircraft, the picture was slightly rosier, showing a 1 percent increase in business, but in a year-on-year comparison, new orders were down 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
AIRLINES
United takes US$90m HK hit
United Airlines Holdings Inc on Tuesday said that it would take a US$90 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings because of a drop in value of its routes to Hong Kong, which has been affected by months of pro-democracy protests. United said that lower demand for travel to Hong Kong reduced its revenue for each seat flown per mile, a measure that airline investors watch closely. That led to its calculation of the noncash impairment charge, it said. The grounding of Boeing Co’s 737 MAX has also hurt United, causing it to cancel thousands of flights.
ARGENTINA
S&P corrects debt grade
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday raised its debt grade for the country, acknowledging that it made a mistake when it changed the rating late last month. S&P bumped the rating on foreign long-term debt from “CC” to “CCC-,” taking it up two notches from “SD” and back to where it was prior to Dec. 20, when the country was declared in default. However, the credit outlook remains “negative,” it said.
CONSULTING
Accenture to buy unit
Consulting giant Accenture PLC has agreed to buy a cybersecurity services business from Broadcom Inc that had been part of Symantec’s enterprise division. Accenture is buying the unit, which has 300 employees, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in March, the firm said in a statement. Broadcom acquired the unit as part of its US$10.7 billion deal to buy Symantec’s enterprise software division last year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by