MACROECONOMICS
China output disappoints
China’s industrial output rose 8.6 percent in the first two months of the year compared with a year ago, official data showed yesterday, the worst result in nearly five years. Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, gained 11.8 percent in the two months from the year before, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That figure was the lowest since an increase of 11.6 percent in February 2011. And fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 17.9 percent during the first two months, the bureau added.
MACROECONOMICS
Aussie jobless rate steady
Australia’s unemployment rate was steady at its decade-high level of 6 percent for the second straight month last month, despite a surprising rise in full-time positions, data showed yesterday. The Bureau of Statistics said while there was strong growth in full-time jobs — an unexpected development given the unwinding of the mining boom -- this was offset by a fall in the number of part-time positions.
ENERGY
Brazil says no power fears
Brazil on Wednesday dismissed fears that the lights might go off on the World Cup, with the soccer extravaganza just three months away. Much of Brazil’s electric grid is powered by hydroelectric plants, but rains have been lighter than usual this year and reservoirs at power plants are lower than normal. “Unless water levels were to fluctuate worse than we have seen, of which there is a low likelihood, there should not be difficulties with the power supply in 2014,” the mining and energy ministry committee said.
FINANCE
Trader fined US$825,000
A once high-flying Goldman Sachs trader dubbed “Fabulous Fab” was ordered on Wednesday to pay more than US$825,000 in one of the prominent cases stemming from the mortgage meltdown that helped spark the Great Recession. US District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled in that Fabrice Tourre should pay a US$650,000 penalty and give up more than US$175,000 of his US$1.5 million-plus bonus for 2007. Tourre, now a doctoral student in macroeconomics at the University of Chicago, said he was weighing his next move in what his lawyers have depicted as a case of scapegoating.
TAXATION
Swiss banker admits fraud
A former Swiss banker has pleaded guilty to his role in a fraud scheme that prosecutors say helped US taxpayers hide as much as US$3 billion in assets from the US Internal Revenue Service. Swiss citizen Andreas Bachmann is one of eight former employees of Zurich-based Credit Suisse to be charged back in 2011. The 56-year-old is the first to be arrested and plead guilty. Court records show he was arrested on Tuesday and pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
TECHNOLOGY
Google eyes Soho outlet
Google Inc has been prowling Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood in search of a location for its first standalone retail outlet, a local real estate broker said. The search-engine company is considering leasing at 131 Greene St, said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The property is around the corner from Apple Inc’s first New York store, on Prince Street. Google may be looking at other locations as well, Consolo said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
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