UNITED STATES
Import prices down
Import prices fell only 0.1 percent last month in data reported by the US Department of Labor on Friday, offset by recovering oil prices, suggesting a slowdown in the rate of imported deflation is occurring which might eventually allow the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Labor department data also showed the price of imported consumer goods other than cars rose 0.1 percent last month, the first gain since February.
UNITED KINGDOM
Trade deficit climbs
The nation posted a larger-than-forecast trade deficit in August and construction output fell at the fastest pace since 2012, underlining the economy’s slowing momentum. The goods trade deficit was ￡11.1 billion (US$17 billion) compared with an upwardly revised ￡12.2 billion in July, the Office for National Statistics said in London on Friday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a narrowing to ￡9.9 billion. Construction output fell 4.3 percent.
PRIVATIZATION
Italy to sell postal shares
Italy plans to raise as much as 3.7 billion euros (US$4.2 billion) by selling stock in state postal company Poste Italiane SpA, the country’s biggest initial public offering since it sold a stake in utility Enel SpA in 1999. The government is expected to offer “slightly less” than 40 percent of the company at a price of between 6 euros and 7.5 euros per share, the finance ministry said in a statement. The ministry said 30 percent of the offering will be reserved for retail investors. The shares are scheduled to start trading in Milan on Monday.
AVIATION
Egypt lifts flight tax
Egypt’s aviation minister said airlines have begun applying a tax increase on all flights out of the country. The tax increase, which went into effect on Friday, is part of the government’s plan to shore up public finances after years of unrest following the 2011 uprising. Minister Hossam Kamal said the tax on business-class tickets increased by a third to reach 400 Egyptian pounds (US$51), while the tax on coach tickets increased by half to reach 150 Egyptian pounds (US$19).
ENTERTAINMENT
Sony cuts PS4 price
Sony Corp on Thursday sliced US$50 off the price of PlayStation 4 video game consoles, matching that of rival Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One ahead of the frantic holiday shopping season. The PS4 dropped to US$350 in the US starting on Friday, according to Sony Computer Entertainment America. Sony has shipped a total of 25.45 million PS4 consoles worldwide, while Microsoft has shipped 13.88 million Xbox One consoles, according to industry tracker VGChartz Network.
SMARTPHONES
Snooping apps removed
Apple on Friday rid its App Store of some applications that it said could snoop on people’s data and posed a security threat. While Apple did not disclose which apps were pulled from its virtual shelves, the list was reported to include software capable of blocking ads from appearing inside other applications such as Facebook. Apple said it was working closely with developers to quickly get their apps back on the App Store.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS