TELECOMS
Motorola loses patent suit
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, which has won two rulings against Apple Inc in Germany, failed to win a third in a patent case involving the use of mathematical sequences in mobile telecommunications. The Regional Court in Mannheim rejected the suit yesterday. Motorola Mobility did not show that Apple violated its patent, Presiding Judge Andreas Voss said when delivering the ruling. More cases between the two companies are pending in German courts, including a bid by Motorola Mobility to enforce its first win from December, which briefly forced Apple to remove some older iPhone and iPad models from its online store in Germany last week. Google Inc is buying Illinois-based Motorola Mobility to gain mobile patents and expand its hardware business.
OIL
IEA trims growth forecast
The International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its forecast for oil demand growth as a result of gloomy economic prospects, but said yesterday that markets were taking tougher international sanctions on Iran in their stride. The agency cut its forecast for growth in oil demand this year to 0.8 million barrels per day (mbd), from 1.1mbd, after the IMF slashed its estimate for global economic growth from 4 percent to 3.3 percent this year. The agency was largely sanguine about the impact of tighter international sanctions on Iran, including an EU import ban which takes effect in July. The new forecast for global oil demand of 89.9mbd, is slightly higher that that of the OPEC oil producers cartel, which trimmed its demand forecast for this year on Thursday to 88.76mbd.
AUSTRALIA
Central bank cuts forecasts
The central bank yesterday trimmed its growth and inflation forecasts for the year to June and signaled it has leeway to cut interest rates amid uncertainty over the eurozone debt crisis. In its quarterly statement on monetary policy, the bank said economic growth in the year to June was expected to be 3.5 percent, down from the 4 percent it forecast in November last year. The bank left its outlook for GDP for this year unchanged at between 3 percent and 3.5 percent. Underlying inflation was forecast to be at 2.25 percent in the 12 months to June compared with its previous estimate of 2.5 percent, within the bank’s 2 percent to 3 percent target band. The bank said uncertainty about Europe’s debt crisis had weighed on household and business confidence and while strong growth was expected in the mining sector, other parts of the economy would continue to struggle.
INVESTMENT
Fund bets on US Treasuries
Pacific Investment Management Co’s Bill Gross increased his holdings of US Treasuries to the highest level since July 2010, while Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman Warren Buffett called them “dangerous.” Gross boosted US government and Treasury debt to 38 percent of assets in Pimco’s US$250.5 billion Total Return Fund, the world’s biggest bond fund. The position last month climbed from 30 percent in December, according to a report on the company’s Web site on Thursday. The billionaire investor, said taxes and inflation should dissuade investors from debt. That puts him in the same camp as Laurence Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, who said this week investors should have 100 percent of their holdings in equities because they offer higher returns than bonds.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
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