UNITED STATES
Fed urges rise to save face
Federal Reserve officials earlier this month believed it would be appropriate to raise a key interest rate “relatively soon,” with some officials arguing for a hike at the Fed’s meeting next month in order to preserve the Fed’s credibility. Minutes of the Nov. 1 to Nov. 2 meeting show that officials were moving closer to hiking rates for the first time in nearly a year. Some officials argued that if the Fed did not raise rates at its meeting next month, it ran the risk of harming the central bank’s credibility given all the signals which had been sent about an impending hike. Private economists are forecasting that the Fed is likely to boost its benchmark rate by a quarter-point at its Dec. 13 to Dec. 14 meeting.
REAL ESTATE
US sales slow, but strong
Fewer Americans purchased new homes last month, but sales are still much stronger this year than last year — a positive sign for the housing market. The US Department of Commerce on Wednesday said that new-home sales fell 1.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000 units. Still, sales through the first 10 months of this year are 12.7 percent higher than during the same period last year. The limited selection of new homes has prompted higher prices. The median sales price increased 1.9 percent from a year ago to US$304,500.
GERMANY
Q3 growth just 0.2 percent
Economic growth in the third quarter this year was just 0.2 percent, driven mainly by domestic consumption, but dented by foreign trade, the federal statistics office Destatis said yesterday. Domestic spending rose 0.4 percent and state expenditure by 1 percent compared with the preceding quarter, but gross investment and imports experienced negligible growth and exports fell by 0.4 percent. The report confirmed provisional figures issued on Tuesday last week. Expressed on a year-on-year basis, the economy expanded 1.7 percent in the third quarter, after 1.8 percent in the second quarter and 1.9 percent in the first quarter.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit loan to reach ￡22bn
Britain must borrow an additional ￡22 billion (US$27 billion) over five years as it exits the EU, the Office for Budget Responsibility said on Wednesday, forcing the government to shelve plans to balance the books by 2020. The extra borrowing, worth 143 billion euros (US$151 billion), covers the period until early 2021, and covers direct and indirect costs of Brexit, the office said. The office pinpointed ￡9 billion of additional borrowing directly caused by Brexit, including ￡6 billion as a result of lower migration and ￡8.1 billion due to lower productivity growth.
SOFTWARE
LinkedIn sale given all clear
EU antitrust regulators are set to give conditional clearance to Microsoft Corp’s US$26 billion takeover of professional social network LinkedIn Corp, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. As part of the EU approval, the US software company is to make some minor changes to concessions submitted last week following feedback from rivals and customers, the people said. The deal, Microsoft’s largest ever acquisition, is to allow the company to add a suite of sales, marketing and recruiting services to its core business products as it gears up for next-generation computing.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
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,
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