BANKING
HSBC optimistic on progress
HSBC is making good progress on its turnaround plan and showing “significant traction” on factors it can control, although the eurozone crisis and increased regulation are creating stiff headwinds, its chief executive said yesterday. “We’ve made encouraging progress for getting the bank into shape. We’ve identified where we want to be in the future — first and foremost in our two home markets of the UK and Hong Kong — and 20 priority growth markets,” CEO Stuart Gulliver told reporters on a conference call. HSBC said it had made “material progress” and is on track to meet its target of getting return on equity above 12 percent and to cut costs by US$3.5 billion a year.
SPAIN
Economy back to recession
Spain’s GDP shrank by 0.3 percent in the first quarter after contracting at the same rate in the final three months last year, confirming a return to recession, according to final statistics published yesterday. The figures confirm preliminary data issued in April by the National Statistics Institute (INE), underscoring the precarious state of the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy, which is battling a record high 24.4 percent unemployment rate. An INE statement said that weaker domestic demand, including household consumption and public spending, had undermined growth as Spain struggles with austerity measures.
BANKING
Shareholders sue JPMorgan
Shareholders of JPMorgan Chase & Co have filed two lawsuits against the biggest US bank, accusing it and its leaders of taking excessive risk and causing a monumental US$2 billion trading loss. One suit was filed by California shareholder James Baker. A second was filed by shareholder Arizona-based Saratoga Advantage Trust’s financial services portfolio. Meanwhile, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Wednesday the bureau has launched a preliminary investigation of JPMorgan following the US$2 billion trading loss at the bank. Mueller’s comment at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was the first on-the-record confirmation of the probe.
SMARTPHONES
LG unveils new Optimus
South Korea’s LG Electronics yesterday unveiled a new version of its Optimus smartphone with greater memory and a more powerful battery, in an attempt to catch up with its rivals. The company said the Optimus LTE 2 — which will be released in the domestic market “soon” — offers as much memory as a notebook computer, allowing consumers to use several applications simultaneously. A new battery gives 40 percent more running time on a single charge than the Optimus LTE 1 released in October last year. LG gave no timetable for overseas sales of the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) phone, which uses a faster mobile network that is available mainly in South Korea, Japan, the US and parts of Europe.
SPORTS GOODS
Adidas sues copycats
Adidas AG has sued to stop a US sporting goods retailer and a skateboarding equipment maker from selling sneakers with three parallel diagonal stripes, a design it said looks too much like its own. The world’s second-largest sporting goods company claimed that sneakers made by World Industries Inc and sold by Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp are knock-offs that infringe many Adidas trademarks. Adidas first used the three-stripe motif in 1952 and began trademarking it in the US in 1994.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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