UNITED STATES
Deficit less than predicted
The trade deficit in April increased less than expected, as exports of goods rebounded strongly, suggesting that trade would be a boost to economic growth in the second quarter. The Department of Commerce on Friday said the trade gap rose 5.3 percent to US$37.4 billion. March’s trade deficit was revised down to US$35.5 billion, which was the smallest since December 2013, from the previously reported US$40.4 billion. Overall exports of goods and services rose 1.5 percent to US$182.8 billion in April, while imports of goods rose 2.4 percent to US$178.9 billion in April, pointing to a pickup in domestic demand.
CANADA
Merchandise gap narrows
The nation’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to C$2.94 billion (US$2.27 billion) in April from March’s record shortfall, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The deficit was wider than the C$2.5 billion forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Export volumes — a measure that strips out the effect of fluctuating prices — rose 0.5 percent on the month, less than the 0.8 percent increase in imports, indicating net trade will be a drag on growth, economists said. Shipments in and out of Canada increased after declining for two straight months. Exports climbed 1.5 percent to C$41.8 billion, not enough to undo the slide from January’s C$46.1 billion. Imports rose 0.9 percent to C$44.7 billion.
OIL
BP to settle Gulf lawsuit
BP PLC on Friday announced that it has agreed to pay US$175 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who accused the oil giant of misleading them about the rate of oil flowing after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. In a brief statement, BP said it would pay the investors over this year and next year. US District Judge Keith Ellison still needs to approve the deal. BP said the agreement does not resolve other securities-related litigation relating to the disaster, which killed 11 workers and poured millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf for 87 days.
ACCOMODATION
Airbnb to probe racism
Airbnb Inc on Friday said it is cracking down on racism after booting one home-sharing host for blatantly discriminating against a woman of color who had made a reservation. A freshly launched review of how hosts and guests interact online and in the real world should be completed by September, when the San Francisco-based start-up is to announce the findings and what it will do about them. Airbnb said that it has enlisted former American Civil Liberties Union head Laura Murphy to lead its discrimination-fighting efforts.
BANKING
SoftBank sells more shares
SoftBank Group Corp increased the amount of money it will raise from selling down its stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to US$10 billion, after exercising an option to dispose of more shares through a trust. That is up from a previous figure of US$8.9 billion, which was itself raised by US$1 billion from an initial announcement early last week. SoftBank is selling shares in Alibaba for the first time since first buying in about 16 years ago.
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing manufacturing (ATM) service provider, expects to double its leading-edge advanced technology services revenue next year to more than US$1 billion, benefiting from strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, a company executive said on Thursday. That would be the second year that ASE has doubled its advanced chip packaging and testing technology revenue, following an estimate of more than US$500 million for this year. ASE is one of the major beneficiaries from the AI boom as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is outsourcing production of advanced chip
TECHNOLOGY EXIT: The selling of Apple stock might be related to the death of Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger last year, an analyst said Billionaire Warren Buffett is now sitting on more than US$325 billion in cash after continuing to unload billions of US dollars worth of Apple Inc and Bank of America Corp shares this year and continuing to collect a steady stream of profits from all of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s assorted businesses without finding any major acquisitions. Berkshire on Saturday said it sold off about 100 million more Apple shares in the third quarter after halving its massive investment in the iPhone maker the previous quarter. The remaining stake of about 300 million shares was valued at US$69.9 billion at the end of