CURRENCY
Japan bolsters war chest
Japan said yesterday it would bolster its currency market intervention war chest by ¥30 trillion (US$385 billion), the second-biggest increase on record, as it moves to tame the soaring currency. The move came as Japanese exporters, a key driver of the country’s economy, continue to complain that a strong yen makes their products less competitive overseas and erodes the value of repatriated profits. “With this, we are preparing ourselves so that we can take resolute decisions at any moment in any situation,” Japanese Minister of Finance Jun Azumi told a press conference. The plan, included in a fourth ¥2.53 trillion extra budget approved by the Cabinet yesterday, would raise the accumulated total amount the government is allowed to borrow from the market to finance intervention to ¥195 trillion.
GERMANY
Consumers still confident
Consumer confidence is holding up in the face of the eurozone debt crisis as rising employment and incomes helped to offset looming recession fears, a poll found yesterday. GfK released its latest index of household confidence, with the barometer forecast to remain steady at 5.6 points next month, unchanged from this month, a statement said. “Despite increased economic risks and a further intensification of the debt crisis, Germans are looking to the future positively again,” GfK said.
AUTOMAKERS
Japanese sales set to rebound
Japan’s domestic auto sales will rebound next year as the country recovers from its biggest postwar disaster and the government extends tax breaks and introduces subsidies, an industry group said. Demand for cars, trucks and buses in Japan may grow by about 900,000 units next year after a record 14 percent drop this year, Toshiyuki Shiga, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, said yesterday. “We expect car sales to grow at the 2009 pace when tax cuts and subsidies were introduced,” Shiga said.
AUSTRALIA
Central bank jittery
Australia’s central bank yesterday said there was a “non-trivial” possibility of a severe contraction in the eurozone economy, leaving the door open for further interest rate cuts next year. The Reserve Bank of Australia said downside risks to the global economy from Europe’s sovereign debt woes had increased of late, “though the timing and magnitude of any effects ... remained very difficult to predict.” The bank cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points for a second consecutive month to 4.25 percent this month, and the meeting’s minutes, published yesterday, showed European jitters were its main concern.
BANKING
US’ Fed to issue new rules
The US Federal Reserve will issue capital and liquidity rules this week reshaping supervision of the riskiest, largest banks and those with more than US$50 billion in assets, a government official familiar with the matter said. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the Fed to impose heightened standards, including stricter capital levels for systemic banks with more than US$50 billion in assets and non-bank systemic institutions. The stricter standards also target liquidity, risk management structure, credit reporting, concentration limits, stress tests, contingent capital and short-term debt limits.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Two scoops of pistachio, one of corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at famous parlors in Palermo, unaware that the booming businesses were controlled by organized crime. The fraud was a textbook case for detectives trained to sniff out dirty money, but even with three mobster classics — a suspicious bankruptcy, a front man and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to shut the operation down. The Brioscia brand, made up of two ice cream parlors, was thriving at the end of the 2010s, attracting locals and foreign visitors alike with its glittering gold stars on travel