DRONES
DJI eyes Japanese market
Major Chinese consumer-drone maker Dajiang Innovation Technology Co (DJI, 大疆) has its eyes on the potentially lucrative Japanese market after regulations on drones were relaxed there three months ago, the company said yesterday after it launched its latest model, Phantom 4, in a fashionable mall in Tokyo. Shenzen-based DJI says it controls 70 percent of the world’s consumer-drone market and the niche market has great potential to grow. Japan’s first law on drones went into effect in December last year.
BRAZIL
Bank holds Selic steady
The central bank on Wednesday maintained its benchmark Selic interest rate at 14.25 percent, as the world’s seventh-largest economy struggles with rising inflation and severe recession. In January, the bank also left the rate unchanged, surprising the market. A weekly survey of 100 market analysts by the central bank’s Focus magazine has found expectations that the high rate is to be held steady through this year, with a cut to 12.5 percent next year.
CHINA
Outlook reduced on SOEs
Moody’s Investors Service cut its credit-rating outlook on 38 Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and 25 financial institutions after the agency’s decision to lower the country’s sovereign credit-rating outlook. The SOEs’ outlook was reduced to negative, Moody’s said yesterday, a day after it issued a separate release downgrading the non-insurance financial firms to negative from stable. The financial institutions include three policy banks, 12 domestic commercial banks and three distressed asset-management companies, Moody’s said.
RETAIL
Adidas forecasts boost
Adidas AG, the German sport-shoe maker, forecast an increase in earnings this year as consumers spend more, making it easier to sell higher-priced goods and offset rising costs. Net income from continuing operations is set to increase 10 to 12 percent excluding goodwill impairment, Adidas said yesterday. Operating margin excluding goodwill impairment is to be at least stable compared with last year’s 6.5 percent. Gross margin is set to narrow as much as 1 percentage point due to higher purchasing costs in Asia.
SECURITIES
Default rates rise
Energy companies are pushing up the overall default rate of US high-yield bonds, and it is expected to get worse by next year, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The default rate for high-yield bonds in the US is expected to climb to 4.7 percent in January from today’s level of 3.1 percent, according to the note. Defaults in the oil patch have been part of the fallout of a market crash that has cut crude prices by nearly 70 percent since their peak in June 2014.
RETAIL
Costco’s income dips 8.7%
Costco Wholesale Corp on Wednesday posted second-quarter earnings that trailed analysts’ estimates as higher-income shoppers show signs of curtailing spending. Net income fell 8.7 percent to US$546 million, or US$1.24 a share, the Issaquah, Washington-based company said in a statement. Same-store sales in the US, a closely watched measure by investors, increased 4 percent excluding the negative impacts from gasoline price deflation and foreign exchange, compared with an estimate of 4.9 percent.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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