INVESTMENT
SGX to buy strategist stake
Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX) is to acquire a majority stake in Scientific Beta Pte, an index provider for products enabling investors to track market themes, an increasingly significant global fund management trend. The target company, incorporated in Singapore, with offices in France, the UK and the US, specializes in factor-based strategies, a market that is set to reach US$2.7 trillion this year, the exchange said. SGX is to buy 93 percent of Scientific Beta for 186 million euros (US$206 million) in cash. Assets replicating Scientific Beta’s smart-beta indices have risen more than 10-fold in four years and now total US$55 billion, SGX said.
BANKS
China eases payment limits
China’s central bank said yesterday it would temporarily raise the limit on small bank batch payments to 500 million yuan (US$72.42 million) from yesterday until Thursday, to ease fund transfers amid a coronavirus outbreak.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
TikTok licenses music
TikTok on Thursday licensed a catalogue of independent music as it worked to build on the momentum of the social networking app specializing in video snippets. The deal between TikTok and Merlin, a digital rights agency for independent music labels, is designed to help facilitate the use of the short-form video service for promotions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
MACROECONOMICS
NZ inflation surprises
New Zealand inflation picked up by more than economists expected in the fourth quarter, closing in on the midpoint of the central bank’s target range. Consumer prices gained 1.9 percent from a year earlier, Statistics New Zealand said yesterday. That compared with 1.5 percent in the third quarter and exceeded the 1.8 percent expected by economists. Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent from three months earlier. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand in November forecast annual inflation would lift to 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
NATURAL GAS
Demand limits US output
As US natural gas prices plummet to 1990s-era lows, production is finally showing signs of a slowdown after years of runaway growth. Output from the lower 48 states has dropped to the lowest level since September, BloombergNEF data show. While production usually slips in January as frigid weather disrupts drilling, weak prices are driving the decline this time around, BNEF analyst Tai Liu said. Explorers have been completing fewer wells in Appalachia and in Louisiana’s Haynesville shale since the second quarter of last year, data from BloombergNEF and the US Energy Information Administration show.
TRADE
Trump to ink pact Wednesday
US President Donald Trump will sign a trade pact between the US, Mexico and Canada on Wednesday during a ceremony at the White House, an administration official told reporters on Thursday. Invitations had been sent out and the White House location would allow lawmakers from all over the country to attend, the official said. The ceremony is likely to take place while an impeachment trial against Trump proceeds on Capitol Hill. The official said Trump would be touting the pact after the signing during travel around the US.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Broadcom touts Apple deals
Broadcom Inc disclosed new agreements to provide components for Apple Inc devices released through the middle of 2023. The San Jose, California-based chipmaker said it entered into two multi-year pacts “for the supply of a range of specified high-performance wireless components and modules to Apple for use in its products.” That is in addition to another similar agreement that Broadcom reached with Apple last year. The three deals could generate about US$15 billion in future revenue, Broadcom added.
TECHNOLOGY
Waymo to expand testing
Alphabet’s self-driving vehicle unit Waymo is expanding testing to more regions of the US to explore “new transportation solutions.” Waymo Chrysler Pacifica minivans and long-haul trucks will take to roads in the states of Texas and New Mexico this week, building on a project in Arizona, according to the company. “These are interesting and promising commercial routes, and we’ll be using our vehicles to explore how the Waymo Driver might be able to create new transportation solutions,” Waymo said on Thursday. Separately on Thursday, Uber said it would bring its autonomous vehicles to Washington from yesterday, for mapping and data collection, building on similar efforts in Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.
BANKS
Ex-CEO Stumpf fined, banned
US authorities on Thursday fined former Wells Fargo & Co chief executive John Stumpf US$17.5 million over the bank’s fake accounts scandal, an unusually punitive action against a former corporate leader. A US banking regulator settled with Stumpf and two other former executives, while announcing charges against five other former officials whose failure to perform their duties allegedly “contributed to the bank’s systemic problems,” the agency said. The scandal dates back years, when Wells Fargo employees from 2002 to 2016, opened millions of deposit and credit card accounts without the approval or knowledge of their customers. The penalties imposed on Stumpf include a lifetime ban on working in the banking industry.
TELECOMS
UK mulls admitting Huawei
British officials have proposed granting Huawei Technologies Co (華為) a limited role in the UK’s future 5G network, resisting US calls for a complete ban over fears of Chinese spying, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The recommendation was made at a meeting of officials from senior government departments on Wednesday, the sources said. The officials proposed barring Huawei from the sensitive, data-heavy “core” part of the network and restricted government systems, closely mirroring a provisional decision made last year under former prime minister Theresa May. “The technical and policy guidance hasn’t changed,” one of the sources said. “Now it is down to a political calculation.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last