BANKING
Brazil central bank rate hike
The Brazilian central bank on Wednesday raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 11.75 percent, surprising many analysts who had expected a rise of just 0.25 percentage points. The rise came on the back of a 0.25 percentage point rise just over a month ago, which was the first since April to tackle rising inflation, which moved just above a government target ceiling of 6.5 percent. The government’s official target is 4.5 percent. Bank Chairman Alexandre Tombini last week said that the nation must “maintain especially vigilant” monetary policy to keep inflation in check.
UNITED STATES
Spending boosts economy
The nation’s economy kept expanding in October and last month, helped by solid gains in consumer spending, manufacturing and overall employment, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest survey of business conditions around the country. The Fed survey found many areas of strength — for the first time this year. The central bank said that business executives remain optimistic about the prospects for growth next year. The gains in economic activity came as overall inflation remained subdued, it said. The report, known as the Beige Book for the color of its cover, will form the basis for discussion at the Fed’s final policymaking meeting of the year on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17.
ECONOMY
Australia faces slow growth
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said that the nation’s living standards could fall as the economy slows and a hostile Senate continues to block key budget legislation. The Australian parliament was scheduled to sit for the final day this year yesterday. Hockey urged the Senate to endorse a new tax on medical appointments, a higher tax on gasoline and cuts to university funding when it sits again in February. “There is a risk that Australians could face a fall in living standards,” if the government could not implement its economic strategy, Hockey told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Government figures released on Wednesday showed that economic growth slowed to a lower-than-expected 0.3 percent for the September quarter.
SOLAR ENERGY
Oil price impact downplayed
Plunging prices for crude oil will have little impact on the solar industry, SunPower Corp chief executive officer Tom Werner said on Wednesday. Oil would have to drop “a lot more” for the economics of burning oil or diesel to be cheaper than solar power,’’ Werner said at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. The price of oil has fallen nearly 40 percent since June, amid swelling supplies from US shale and OPEC’s decision last week to maintain production.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney raises dividend
Walt Disney Co raised its annual cash dividend by 34 percent to US$1.15 a share from US$0.86 previously, the Burbank, California-based company said on Wednesday. The dividend is set to be paid on Jan. 8 to shareholders of record on Dec. 15. The movie, theme park and TV company has increased returns to shareholders in recent years, with faster dividend growth and stock buybacks. Four years ago, the annual payout stood at US$0.40 a share. The company repurchased US$6.5 billion of its stock in the year that ended on Sept. 27.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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