CORPORATIONS
Apple leapfrogs Exxon Mobil
Culture-changing technology outshined crude oil on Wednesday with iPhone and iPad maker Apple Inc eclipsing Exxon Mobil Corp as the most valuable company in the world based on the value of its stock. Despite an overall dismal day on the New York Stock Exchange, Apple ended trading with its stock priced at US$363.69 per share for a total market capitalization of US$337.2 billion. Exxon Mobil’s stock price slipped to US$68.03 per share to give the international petroleum giant a valuation of US$330.8 billion.
AUTOMAKERS
GM chairman worried
General Motors Co chairman Dan Akerson is worried about the chances of another economic recession, he said yesterday in an interview with the Financial Times Deutscheland. “There is a danger of a new recession and I see it with concern,” Akerson was quoted by the German-language daily as saying. Global equity markets have been extremely volatile over the past week owing to fears of a double dip recession, driven by the US and eurozone debt crises.
BREWERS
China lifts AB InBev profits
The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, said yesterday that second-quarter profits rose by more than a quarter as higher sales in China made up for declining demand in the US and Brazil. Beer volumes in China, where AB InBev is pushing its Budweiser as well as Harbin and Sedrin brands, rose 12 percent in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier. The company said net profit rose to US$1.45 billion from US$1.15 billion.
INSURANCE
Aegon profits decline
Aegon NV, the Dutch owner of US insurer Transamerica, says its second-quarter net profit fell 2.1 percent as better investment gains failed to mask weaknesses in its underlying business. Net profit was 403 million euros (US$573 million), down from 413 million euros in the same period last year. Aegon cited US customers canceling or not renewing life insurance policies that were profitable for the company.
AUSTRALIA
Jobless rate hits 5.1 percent
Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly rose last month to 5.1 percent, data showed yesterday, hitting its highest level since November last year as the economy shed 22,000 full-time jobs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the jobless rate increased 0.1 percentage points from a revised 5.0 percent in June, worse than the 4.9 percent expected by the market.
JAPAN
Machinery orders soar
Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders unexpectedly soared 7.7 percent in June from the previous month, official data showed yesterday. The core data, which excludes volatile demand from power companies and for ships, rose for the second straight month after a 3 percent increase in May and a fall of 3.3 percent in April, figures from the Cabinet Office showed.
SOUTH KOREA
Interest rates unchanged
South Korea’s central bank left interest rates on hold yesterday, setting in all likelihood a precedent for Asian policymakers forced to respond to a global economic slump and briefly halt their battle against inflation. The Bank of Korea was unambiguous in its statement, saying that while inflation would remain high, the downside risks to growth had increased.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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