MACROECONOMICS
Fed reports US growth
The US economy continued to expand last month and this month, helped by strength in consumer spending, a US Federal Reserve survey released on Wednesday indicates. All 12 of the Fed’s regions reported growth, with five — New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas and San Francisco — characterizing growth as “moderate” while the others reported “modest” growth. Boston and Richmond reported that growth came in at a slightly slower pace than the previous reporting period. The Fed’s survey, known as the Beige Book, is set to be used by central bank officials when they next meet on July 29 and July 30 to review interest rate policies.
AUTOMAKERS
New car sales rise in Europe
The number of new cars registered in Europe grew for the 10th consecutive month last month, according to industry data published yesterday, adding to evidence that the embattled sector is recovering. Sales of new cars rose by 4.5 percent last month to 1.2 million, the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) said, as the market continues the battle to shake off a recent slump. However, the number of new cars is still low, with the association saying the figure represented “the second-lowest level reached in the month of June since ACEA began the series last year with the enlarged EU.”
COMMUNICATIONS
KDDI, Sumitomo cooperate
Japanese mobile carrier KDDI Corp said yesterday that it planned to link up with trading house Sumitomo Corp in a deal to invest about US$2 billion to develop wireless networks in Myanmar, as the country opens up after years of military rule. The move would see the Japanese giants pair up for a joint venture with state-owned Myanmar Posts & Telecommunications. The deal is to see an investment of ￥200 billion (US$2.0 billion) over a decade to boost phone networks in a country where only about 10 percent of the population of 65 million have access to mobile phones, KDDI said, which is one of the lowest rates in the world.
RETAIL
First Starbucks in Colombia
US chain Starbucks on Wednesday opened its first branch in Colombia — a world famous coffee exporter — apparently unafraid it would be like selling sand at the beach. To gear up for a soft landing, the US company teamed up with local company Nutresa and picked a location in Bogota’s exclusive Parque de la 93 for upscale appeal. Starbucks “is looking to achieve a leadership position in the [Colombian] domestic market,” a Nutresa statement said. Colombia is the world’s leading exporter of smooth arabica and Starbucks has decided to sell 100 percent Colombian beans in all its Colombian outlets.
INTERNET
EBay forecast falls short
EBay Inc gave a sales outlook for the third quarter that fell short of estimates, as the biggest online marketplace struggles to attract more users after a data breach and changes to Google Inc’s search engine. Revenue in the current period is estimated to be US$4.3 billion to US$4.4 billion, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Profit before certain items will be US$0.65 to US$0.67 a share. The company said it second-quarter sales rose 13 percent to US$4.37 billion, falling short of the average analyst estimate of US$4.39 billion. Net income climbed 5.6 percent to US$676 million, or US$0.53 a share, from US$640 million, or US$0.49, a year earlier.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
NATURAL PARTNERS: Taiwan and Japan have complementary dominant supply chain positions, are geographically and culturally close, and have similar work ethics Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other related companies would add ￥11.2 trillion (US$78.31 billion) to Japan’s chipmaking hot spot Kumamoto Prefecture over the next decade, a local bank’s analysis said. Kyushu Financial Group, a lender based in Kumamoto’s capital, almost doubled its projection for the economic impact that the chip sector would bring to the region compared to its estimate a year earlier, a presentation on Thursday said. The bank said that 171 firms had made new investments since November 2021, up from 90 in an earlier analysis. TSMC’s Kumamoto location was once a sleepy farming area, but has undergone
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