COMMODITIES
Glencore shares on the rise
Commodities miner and trader Glencore PLC this week sought to reassure investors over concerns about its debt load, as shares rose for the third time in four days. Shares rose 1.1 percent to ￡0.92 by 8:02am in London yesterday, narrowing this week’s loss to 5.4 percent. The shares have endured a roller-coaster week after it plunged a record 29 percent on Monday before recovering much of those losses in the following two days.
MEDIA
FremantleMedia buys Kwai
FremantleMedia, the television producer and distributor behind shows such as The X Factor and Family Feud yesterday said it bought a majority stake in French producer Kwai to boost its scripted television portfolio. The investment by FremantleMedia, which is owned by Bertelsmann SE’s RTL Group, is part of a strategy to form partnerships to create content that can cross international borders. Financial details were not disclosed. Kwai, which is run by Thomas Bourguignon, the creator of French detective series Femmes de Loi, is to produce scripted series that appeal beyond France, FremantleMedia said. Kwai shot two French television films earlier this year, and upcoming series include Republican Gangsters for Canal Plus and Godzilla for Arte.
OIL
US lifts oil export ban
A bill to lift the 40-year-old ban on US oil exports passed the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, but the future of the measure is uncertain in the full chamber, after a controversial amendment was added to it. The bill, sponsored by Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from oil-producing North Dakota, passed 13 to 9. Heitkamp was the only Democrat to vote for the measure. Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican of Pennsylvania, added an amendment to the bill that would make Iran compensate US victims of Iranian backed terrorism, language that senators said would doom the bill’s future.
INTERNET
Facebook tests video profile
The world’s largest social network is testing new profile videos that can be created from phones and would replace a still profile photo. The seven-second, looping videos play automatically when you look at someone’s profile page. The videos can include sound that would play only if you click on the video. For now, only some iPhone users in California and the UK have access to the changes. Any Facebook user can see them. Facebook Inc does not have a specific date for expanding the feature.
RETAIL
Recreational pot legalized
Marijuana sales for recreational use began in Oregon on Thursday, as it joined Washington state and Colorado in allowing the sale of a drug that remains illegal under US federal law. Oregon residents 21 years and older can buy up to 7 grams of dried marijuana at about 200 existing medical-use marijuana dispensaries under the new law. Backers hope the law can help curb a flourishing black market, but opponents say it heightens drug use and access by children. Voters in Oregon and Alaska last year approved marijuana use and possession in state-regulated frameworks. Marijuana shops created specifically for the recreational market, like those operating in Washington state and Colorado, are expected to open next year in both Oregon and Alaska.
AUCTIONS
Jack Ma painting to be sold
A painting by Jack Ma (馬雲) and Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi (曾梵志) that is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong tomorrow could fetch as much as HK$2.5 million (US$322,577) for charity, according to the auction house. The oil on canvas painting created last year depicts the Earth and is titled Paradise. Ma and Zeng collaborated on the piece to raise awareness of environmental protection, according to the Sotheby’s catalogue. “This is the first time I’ve painted, and to have been able to do it with Fanzhi — I am deeply honored,” Ma, the billionaire co-founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), is quoted in the catalogue as saying. “Together we have created an earth: to protect the Earth, to protect the oceans, to protect the air,” he said.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung releases Gear S2
Samsung yesterday began selling its new smartwatch in the US, starting at US$300. The South Korean company announced the Gear S2 in August, but gave no details on prices then. The S2 has a circular frame that can be rotated to scroll through notifications and apps. Previous models required swiping, similar to smartphones, which could tire out fingers given how little fits on each screen. The watch itself is also smaller — roughly the size of the larger version of Apple Inc’s Apple Watch. For the first time, Samsung’s smartwatch will work with any Android smartphone, not just Samsung’s, although all features might not work.
COMMODITIES
Interest in Glencore grows
The sovereign wealth fund of Singapore is among investors that have expressed interest in buying a minority stake in Glencore PLC’s agriculture business, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Others involved in preliminary negotiations include Japanese trading houses, such as Mitsui & Co, and at least one Canadian pension fund, said the individuals, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Citigroup Inc, one of the banks hired to run the sale alongside Credit Suisse Group AG, in an analyst note on Tuesday said that the whole business could be worth as much as US$10.5 billion. Glencore is seeking to sell a minority stake in the unit, which deals in commodities from wheat to cotton and soybeans to sugar.
FOOD SERVICE
Court charges OSI units
Two subsidiaries of OSI Group LLC have been charged in a Chinese court in a year-long food safety scandal that saw the US supplier of meat products probed for allegedly selling out-of-date products. Prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against OSI’s Shanghai and Hebei Husi Foods Ltd (福喜食品), along with 10 employees, accusing the US company’s units of making and selling substandard products, according to a statement posted on a Shanghai government Web site dated Wednesday.
JAPAN
Household spending rises
Household spending in August rose for the first time in three months and the availability of jobs improved to its best in more than two decades, which could temper concerns that the economy has fallen into a recession. The 2.9 percent annual increase in household spending in August was more than the median estimate for a 0.4 percent year-on-year increase and followed a 0.2 percent annual decline in July as consumers bought more cars.
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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