SOUTH KOREA
BOK cuts growth to 2.5%
The Bank of Korea (BOK) has trimmed its forecast for the nation’s growth this year, partly due to the fallout from a massive influence-peddling scandal. The central bank said it expects the economy to expand 2.5 percent this year, slower than its October prediction of 2.8 percent growth, and grow 2.8 percent next year. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol told reporters that economic policy should focus on encouraging consumer spending. Lee said the grim job market was hurting consumer sentiment. Despite slowing growth, inflation is expected to rise to 1.8 percent this year from 1 percent last year, partly due to higher oil prices.
EQUITIES
Soros loses on Trump rally
George Soros lost nearly US$1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election win, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Soros became more bearish immediately after Trump’s election, but the stock market has rallied on expectations that Trump’s policies will boost corporate earnings and the overall economy. As a result, some of Soros’ trading positions incurred losses approaching US$1 billion, the newspaper said. Soros exited many of his bearish bets late last year, avoiding further losses. The broader portfolio held by Soros’ firm performed better, gaining about 5 percent on the year, the report said.
INTERNET
Pandora to cut jobs by 7%
US Internet radio network Pandora on Thursday announced plans to trim its workforce by 7 percent as part of a push for profit this year in the competitive online music streaming market. “While making workforce reductions is always a difficult decision, the commitment to cost discipline will allow us to invest more heavily in product development and monetization and build on the foundations of our strategic investments,” Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said in a release. The firm, which saw its ranks of paid subscribers top 4.3 million in the recently ended quarter, has between 1,000 and 5,000 workers, with about 2,500 positions in the US. The job cuts are to be focused in the US, excluding Pandora-owned Ticketfly, which means the number of employees let go could be 177 or so.
AUTOMOBILES
China auto sales rise 13.7%
Auto sales in China, the world’s biggest car market, surged at their fastest in three years last year, an industry group said on Thursday, jumping nearly 14 percent after authorities slashed a purchase tax. A total of 28.03 million cars were sold last year, up 13.7 percent annually, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said. “Both production and sales achieved historic new highs,” the group said in a statement. It added that China sales “ranked first globally for the eighth straight year.” Sales had risen 4.7 percent in 2015 and 6.9 percent the previous year.
AIRLINES
SpiceJet buys 205 planes
Indian airline SpiceJet yesterday said it had agreed to buy up to 205 Boeing planes worth US$22 billion in what it said was one of the largest deals ever in Indian aviation. SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh said the low-cost airline, which has a 13 percent share of the Indian market, was expanding both its domestic and international operations. The deal marks a major turnaround for SpiceJet, whose planes were briefly grounded in 2014 after suppliers refused to refuel them due to unpaid bills. SpiceJet is the only Indian low-cost carrier with a Boeing fleet.
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,
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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.
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