INVESTMENT
Water for the fire monkey
CLSA’s Feng Shui Index has some recommendations for the Lunar New Year, saying that Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is destined for a bumpy ride, but there is enough water to withstand the fire monkey. By the end of the year, things would look a bit better. CLSA expects auto-related stocks, machinery and financials to do well in the beginning of the lunar year, but advises caution over “water” industries — gaming and transport. From November, it recommends avoiding telecommunications, technology, utilities and oil.
SMARTPHONES
Apple to trade in phones
Apple Inc for the first time is accepting banged up iPhones as a trade in from those wanting to upgrade. The company said it hopes that with more leeway, applicable only to iPhone 5 and later models, more people would upgrade to new iPhones. Apple pays up to US$350 for phones without cracked screens or broken buttons. The changes, first reported on the tech blog 9to5Mac, were confirmed on Friday by Apple spokesman Nick Leahy.
ELECTRONICS
GoPro inks Microsoft deal
GoPro Inc on Friday said it signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp in a move to convince investors it is making progress on improving software editing capabilities for its action cameras. Terms were not disclosed for the deal that involves patent sharing for file storage. “This agreement with GoPro shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions,” Microsoft Technology Licensing president Nick Psyhogeos said.
UNITED STATES
Trade deficit grows
The trade deficit grew modestly last year as exports declined amid a slowing international economy. For all of last year, the trade gap in goods and services widened 4.6 percent from a year earlier to US$531.5 billion, as the fall in exports outpaced the decline in imports, the Commerce Department said on Friday. In evidence of the weakness in international trade, US both exports and imports declined since 2014.
BRAZIL
Inflation at a 12-year high
Inflation rate rose to a 12-year high last month, officials said on Friday, as the world’s seventh-largest economy continued to struggle through a protracted recession. Driven by rising food prices, the annual inflation rate hit 10.71 percent, the highest since November 2003 and well beyond the central bank’s target ceiling of 6.5 percent, national statistics institute IBGE said. Meanwhile, the monthly inflation rate was 1.27 percent, the highest January figure since 2003.
PORTUGAL
Tax increases revised
The government on Friday said it is to increase indirect taxes more than planned earlier and cut the growth outlook presented two weeks earlier. The government lowered this year’s economic growth forecast to 1.8 percent from the 2.1 percent announced on Jan. 21, when it presented an initial draft of the budget. Total tax revenue is to represent about 25 percent of GDP this year, little changed from last year, and the government would increase taxes on fuel, cars and banks, according to this year’s budget proposal.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
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