SOVEREIGN DEBT
S&P negative on UK outlook
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Friday said it was keeping a negative outlook on Britain’s “AA” sovereign credit rating due to ongoing uncertainty about the country’s future outside the EU, after downgrading it in the wake of June’s referendum. Factors that could trigger a further downgrade include weaker-than-expected growth, a decision by foreign central banks to sell some of their holdings in the pound or a new referendum on Scottish independence, the ratings agency said. “In our opinion, ‘Brexit’ presents a significant risk to the UK’s track record of strong economic performance, and to its large financial sector in particular,” S&P said.
INTERNET
EU warns WhatsApp
European privacy watchdogs on Friday warned WhatsApp over sharing user information with parent company Facebook Inc. The Italian antitrust watchdog on Friday also announced a separate probe into whether the popular messaging service obliged users to agree to sharing personal data with Facebook. The EU’s 28 data protection authorities said in a statement they had requested WhatsApp stop sharing users’ data with Facebook until the “appropriate legal protections could be assured” to avoid falling foul of EU data protection law.
ENERGY
Exxon profits drop 38%
Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, on Friday reported a 38 percent drop in quarterly profit that still beat Wall Street’s expectations as cost cuts partly offset declining crude oil prices. The company reported third-quarter net income of US$2.65 billion, or US$0.63 per share, compared with US$4.24 billion, or US$1.01 per share, a year earlier. Earnings fell in all of the company’s divisions, including the refining arm, which has generally bolstered profits when oil prices are low. Production fell about 3 percent to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, the company said.
ENERGY
PetroChina profits fall 77%
PetroChina Co (中石油) posted a 77 percent decline in third-quarter profit as a suppressed international oil market and lower domestic natural gas prices eroded earnings at the country’s biggest producer. Net income fell to 1.2 billion yuan (US$177.96 million) in the July-to-September period, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. Higher earnings from refining and chemicals were overwhelmed by losses on production and weaker performance from its natural gas and pipelines units. Revenue dropped 3.8 percent to 411.4 billion yuan.
BREWERS
Anheuser-Busch downbeat
Belgium-based brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV has scaled down its revenue forecast for the year following poor results in Brazil. The maker of Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois had earlier predicted that net revenue would grow ahead of inflation. However, the company on Friday said in a statement that “given the weak results in Brazil, we now expect growth in line with inflation.” The news comes a month after shareholders approved AB Inbev’s takeover of SABMiller PLC, the maker of Fosters and Miller beer.
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
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
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