GERMANY
Jobless rate remains low
Unemployment remained at historically low levels of 6.4 percent last month as the recovery in Europe’s biggest economy remained on track, data showed yesterday. The number of people registered as unemployed fell by a seasonally adjusted 1,000 to 2.786 million, the lowest level since December 1991, the Federal Labor Office said. That was slightly fewer than expected, as analysts had been penciling in a decline of about 5,000.
ELECTRONICS
Sony shares plunge
Shares in Sony Corp plunged 8.25 percent on Tuesday on dilution fears after the Japanese electronics giant announced plans to raise a total of ￥441 billion (US$3.6 billion) — more than 10 percent of the company’s market capitalization as of yesterday — through stock and bond sales. It is the first new share issuance in 26 years, the company said. The stock closed at ￥3,461.5 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, down 8.25 percent from the previous day.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp in ‘selective default’
Troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp is in “selective default,” ratings agency S&P said yesterday, the latest blow to the one-time giant as it struggles to repair a tattered balance sheet. The move comes after Sharp announced that it was issuing preferred securities to its main lenders, instead of repaying loans that were due. However, the classification was expected to be only temporary, S&P said.
PETROLEUM
Petrobras to cut investment
Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras on Monday slashed its five-year investment plan by US$77 billion — 37 percent — as it tries to recover from a massive corruption scandal. A new, leaner business plan presented by the company was also seen as reflecting today’s lower crude oil prices and other factors that are bad news for Petrobras. The cuts to the 2015-2019 plan are to reduce Petrobras’ investment spending over the period to US$130.3 billion, the company said. Most investment — 86 percent — through 2019 is to go toward exploration and production of oil. The company, mired in debt, plans business restructuring and assets sales to the tune of US$42.6 billion in 2017-2018.
TELECOMS
Colt to exit IT services
Telecoms provider Colt Group SA said it would exit its IT services business to focus on its core network, and voice and data-center services divisions. The company, whose largest shareholder recently offered to take it private, said it would exit the business over the next two to three years, bearing exceptional cash costs of 45 million euros to 55 million euros (US$50.2 million to US$61.3 million) and a non-cash impairment charge of about 90 million euros. Colt said it was targeting revenue this year of between 1.50 billion euros and 1.52 billion from its core business.
EUROPEAN UNION
Google given extension
Brussels has given Google Inc an extension until Aug. 17 to answer an antitrust case alleging that the tech giant abuses its search engine’s market dominance, a company spokesman said on Monday. The announcement of charges followed a five-year investigation into whether Google’s preferential use of its own shopping product in its search engine could be harmful to consumers and competitors. Google accounts for 90 percent of the online search market in Europe.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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