JAPAN
Tokyo bids to back recovery
The government is planning for an ￥18.6 trillion (US$181 billion) package to counter the impact of a sales-tax bump in April, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tries to sustain a recovery in the world’s third-biggest economy. The steps will include ￥5.5 trillion in fiscal spending, an official who asked not to be named said, citing government policy. The government will use tax revenue to fund the package, forgoing new bond sales, the official said. However, Kathy Matsui, chief Japan strategist for Goldman Sachs Group Inc, said Abe’s success in reviving the economy hinges on wages rising more than the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent inflation target.
FINANCE
Banking trio refuse EU deal
JPMorgan Chase & Co, HSBC Holdings PLC and Credit Agricole SA rejected an EU deal to end an antitrust probe into the rigging of Euro interbank offered rates (EURIBOR), risking higher fines and challenging the future of the bloc’s settlement process. The EU is seeking to announce two sets of settlements as soon as yesterday, with banks accused of colluding to rig the LIBOR and EURIBOR, according to a person familiar with the probe. While global fines for rate-rigging have already topped US$3.7 billion, the cost to banks may climb as they face lawsuits worldwide. An EU accord includes a finding of liability that can be used in civil cases.
GAMING
Xbox demand beating supply
Microsoft Corp said it is selling every Xbox One it can make, after introducing the new game console on Nov. 22. Sales are setting records, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker said on Tuesday in a statement, without being more specific. Users have already spent more than 50 million hours on games and entertainment, Microsoft said. “Demand is far exceeding supply in the 13 countries we’ve launched and we are sold out at retailers around the world,” Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of strategy and marketing for Xbox, said in the statement.
ELECTRONICS
Sony, Renesas to hold talks
Sony Corp is set to begin formal talks to buy a Japanese chip plant from Renesas Electronics Corp to increase production of smartphone image sensors, people with knowledge of the proposal said. Sony plans to begin due diligence next week and the companies may not reach a final agreement, the sources said. Sony and Renesas will sign a memorandum as early as next week as they initiate talks over the plant in Tsuruoka, another person with knowledge of the plans said. Sony is deciding between purchasing the Renesas plant in northern Japan and investing in its own chip factories in the south, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
RETAIL
Web shopping hits new high
Online shopping surged about 20 percent to a record on Cyber Monday as many consumers snubbed physical stores and took to the Internet to buy holiday gifts. Including shopping on personal computers and mobile devices, online retail sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving rose to almost US$2 billion, according to researcher ComScore Inc. That made it the heaviest Web-spending day ever for the fourth straight year. More than US$23.9 billion has been spent online through PCs alone since Nov. 1, an 8.4 percent gain from the same period last year, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
APPRECIATION: The central bank stepped in to stabilize the NT dollar after a surge in foreign institutional investment, triggered by optimism about tariffs and US Fed policy Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, as the central bank intervened in the currency market to curb the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation against the US dollar. Foreign exchange reserves increased by US$5.48 billion from May, reaching an all-time high of US$598.43 billion, the central bank said on Friday. While the central bank did not disclose the scale of its intervention, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民) said that the currency market remained relatively stable until the middle of last month. However, a shift occurred following the US Federal Reserve’s signal of a
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