TECHNOLOGY
Dell may sell units to NTT
Dell might announce the sale of its technology services unit to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) for US$3.5 billion as early as Monday next week, Re/code reported, citing sources briefed on the process. Dell plans to sell the division as part of a wider effort to raise as much as US$10 billion from the disposal of assets that are not core to its business, the report said. The acquisition by the Japan’s NTT Data Corp would be the company’s largest, helping increase its sales outside Japan, where a shrinking and aging population has stymied economic growth.
UNITED STATES
Minimum wage rise likely
California lawmakers have reached a tentative deal to raise the state minimum wage to US$15 an hour by 2022, potentially signaling the biggest advance yet in a campaign to increase pay for low-income workers that has reverberated in the Democratic presidential contest and in cities across the country. If approved, California would become the first state to adopt a US$15 an hour minimum wage. A measure to impose a US$15 statewide minimum wage in New York is under negotiation in Albany. Under the tentative California deal the wage, which was raised to US$10 an hour on Jan. 1, would increase incrementally to US$15 over the next six years.
COMMODITIES
Gold weakens under dollar
Gold has been thrown onto the defensive by a resurgent US dollar, sinking to the lowest in more than a month as the US currency’s rally hurts the allure of the metal that has been the best-performing commodity of the year. Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.7 percent to US$1,208.38 an ounce, the lowest since Feb. 23, and traded at US$1,213.89 at 1:50pm in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The metal retreated 3.1 percent last week, the most since November last year, and it is headed for the first monthly drop of the year after surging 11 percent last month. Gold’s rally this year has been cut to 14 percent as a gauge of the US dollar heads for the longest stretch of gains since January.
OIL
Oil on hold for meeting
Oil prices edged up in Asia yesterday, recovering slightly from last week’s decline, but analysts said traders would likely hold off making any big moves ahead of next month’s meeting of key producers. Hopes for an agreement between Russia, Saudi Arabia and other crude giants to at least freeze output sent both main contracts racing above US$40 earlier this month, helped by a dive in the strength of the US dollar. However, some of those gains were chipped away last week as talk of a possible US interest rate hike lifted the US dollar and a report showed another jump in US crude stockpiles.
FASHION
Giornetti leaves Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo creative director Massimiliano Giornetti, is leaving the fashion house after 16 years. In a statement, Ferragamo thanked Giornetti for his commitment and collaboration and said it was taking the opportunity of the departure to “revisit our approach to creativity.” Giornetti entered Ferragamo in 2000 as menswear designer and in 2011 became the brand’s creative director. “Over the years, the company has discovered and supported so many young talents and today can count on an excellent in-house creative team,” chief executive Michele Norsa said in a statement.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy