■ OIL
Crude price drops US$0.18
Oil prices dropped yesterday as traders took profit from crude futures' rise last week on worries about global supplies. Light, sweet crude for delivery next month lost US$0.18 to US$76.52 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore. The contract rose US$0.40 on Friday to settle at US$76.70 a barrel, ending the week up US$2.66, or 3.6 percent. Prices have been supported by concerns about tight supplies and expectations that OPEC will keep output steady at a meeting today. OPEC is almost certain to maintain its current production target this week, with demand for gasoline and diesel fuel slackening.
■ SEMICONDUCTORS
AMD launches new chip
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) launched its highly publicized new server chip yesterday, delivering the biggest jolt to its product lineup in four years. The company's redesigned Opteron processor is the first from AMD to feature four computing engines on a single chip instead of just one or two. AMD's belated entry into the "quad-core" market is a critical element in the financially strapped company's offensive against Intel Corp, the world's largest semiconductor company, whose market value of US$148 billion makes it 21 times bigger than AMD.
■ CHINA
Car sales, output revised
Car output and sales are forecast to reach a record 9 million units this year, media reports said, amid continuing problems with overcapacity. The forecast is higher than earlier estimates of 8.5 million in sales and output, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported on Sunday, citing China Machinery Industry Federation vice president Zhang Xiaoyu (張小虞). A top economic planner warned that production capacity in the auto sector has exceeded 10 million units -- far beyond sales of 7.2 million units last year, which made it the world's second-largest auto market last year, surpassing Japan.
■ ECONOMY
IMF welcomes `reckoning'
The recent credit crunch in the financial markets has provided a welcome "reckoning" that should help in terms of long-term stability, the outgoing head of the IMF said in an interview published yesterday. Speaking to the Financial Times from Cernobbio, Italy, at a conference of international financial policymakers, IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato said this "reckoning is probably a welcome one but it does not mean that it will be a painless one." Rato, who is set to step down from his post next month, described recent market turmoil caused by problems in the US housing sector as a "serious crisis."
■ ECONOMY
IMF cuts growth forecast
The IMF will cut its forecast for world economic growth because of fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis that will weigh on US and global expansion, particularly next year. "It's too early to quantify," IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato told a press conference in Lisbon yesterday. While most of the reduction in the forecasts will come in the US, "we see consequences in Europe and Japan, but probably much more limited." The slump in the US housing market is starting to spread from the domestic housing market to the broader economy as companies face rising financing costs as banks clamp down on lending.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2