BANKING
Credit Suisse revises losses
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, said losses in the fourth quarter of last year were larger than previously reported after it booked more charges for a probe into tax evasion by US clients. The net loss amounted to 476 million Swiss francs (US$537 million), the Zurich-based bank said yesterday, as it set aside SF468 million primarily related to the US investigation. Credit Suisse restated results for the quarter last month, reporting a loss of SF8 million after a SF275 million charge to settle lawsuits over mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
FINANCE
Singapore widens probe
Singapore broadened its share-trading probe to include executives from two more companies as the police and the central bank investigate a rout that wiped US$6.9 billion of market value in October last year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department, the white-collar crime unit of the police, are investigating trading of Blumont Group Ltd, Asiasons Capital Ltd and LionGold Corp shares for possible breaches of Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act.
INTERNET
Yahoo boosts encryption
Yahoo has added another layer of security in its effort to shield people’s online lives from government spies and other snooping. The measures announced on Wednesday include the completion of a system that encrypts all information being transmitted from one Yahoo data center to another. The technology is designed to make the digital information flowing through data centers indecipherable to outsiders.
ECONOMY
Brazil hikes interest rate
Brazil raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 11 percent on Wednesday, as Latin America’s largest economy scrambled to contain inflation. The central bank’s monetary policy commission said the decision continued the process of adjustment begun in April last year, when the rate stood at 7.25 percent. The commission did not rule out further rate hikke. Markets expected the increase; some analysts think the rate will hit 11.25 percent before the end of the year.
REAL ESTATE
Vietnam rally delayed: CBRE
Vietnam’s property market rebound from a three-year slump may be delayed until next year as families struggle to access affordable loans and confidence lags, according to CBRE Group Inc, a global real-estate firm. Just 1,500 condominiums were sold in Hanoi in the first quarter of this year, according to CBRE. That fivefold increase from the 279 sold in the same period two years ago is still lower than the peak in 2009, when more than 15,000 units were sold there. In Ho Chi Minh City, first-quarter sales more than tripled to 2,263, compared with a peak of 13,000 condos sold there in 2010.
WALL STREET
Female banker to leave
One of Wall Street’s most prominent women, Blythe Masters, plans to end a 27-year career at JPMorgan Chase & Co. The New York- based investment bank is selling the commodities units that Masters oversees. She is widely credited with creating credit default swaps, a derivative that helped drive the US mortgage crisis. Masters, 45, plans to “take some well-deserved time off,” JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, 58, and investment-banking head Daniel Pinto, 51, wrote in a memo to staff.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
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