TRADE
Indonesia posts surplus
Indonesia recorded a trade surplus for the seventh consecutive month last month, official data showed yesterday, due to a steep fall in imports. The statistics agency said Indonesia posted a narrower surplus of US$477 million compared with a revised US$1.08 billion recorded in May. Exports last month slid 12.7 percent on-year to US$13.44 billion, while imports plunged 17.42 percent, down US$12.96 billion from a year before.
PROPERTY
Singapore home sales dip
Singapore home sales dropped 42 percent last month to the lowest this year, as fewer projects were offered. Developers sold 375 units last month compared with a revised 643 units in May, according to data released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Among companies that put up projects for sale, Watervine Homes Pte sold six of 145 units marketed in a northeastern suburb, while Sims Urban Oasis Pte sold 11 units of the 50 it offered in the east, data showed.
RETAIL
US sales edge down 0.3%
US retail sales slid 0.3 percent last month, as consumers pulled back spending in a broad array of areas, including auto purchases, the US Department of Commerce reported on Tuesday. Total retail and food services sales fell to US$442 billion last month, against analysts’ forecast of a 0.3 percent rise. The department also revised lower the May gain to 1 percent from 1.2 percent. Last month’s data suggested the economy was still struggling after a particularly harsh first quarter.
STEEL
POSCO to cut non-core units
POSCO Co Ltd is to reduce its domestic-market businesses by 50 percent and those overseas by 30 percent, as South Korea’s biggest steelmaker increases efforts to fight falling profits amid a global slump in prices. The company will “aggressively” leave non-core operations, CEO Kwon Oh-joon said at a briefing yesterday. The company has already agreed to sell a 38 percent stake in its engineering unit to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia for 1.24 trillion won (US$1.1 billion).
LUXURY GOODS
Burberry quarterly sales up
Burberry Group PLC, the UK’s largest luxury-goods maker, reported a 10 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter sales, as strong demand in Europe compensated for a slump in Hong Kong. Retail revenue advanced to ￡407 million (US$637 million) in the three months through June, London-based Burberry yesterday said in a statement. Analysts predicted ￡414 million, according to the median of 17 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Currencies should boost full-year profit by about ￡20 million if they stay at current rates, Burberry added, raising its forecast from May by ￡10 million.
BANKING
JPMorgan Q2 profit up 4%
JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Tuesday that its second-quarter profit rose 4 percent from a year earlier, as the bank continued to trim expenses and notched a solid performance at its investment banking division. The largest US bank by assets earned US$5.78 billion after payments to preferred shareholders, up from a profit of US$5.57 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the bank earned US$1.54 per share, compared with US$1.46 per share a year earlier.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
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