GAMBLING
Top-end punters boost Macau
Gaming revenue in Macau rose for the first time in three years last year as high-end punters’ appetite for gambling recovered after a protracted government campaign against shows of wealth among public officials and slowing economic growth. Figures from Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination bureau yesterday showed revenues for last year rose 19 percent to 265.7 billion patacas (US$33.13 billion). Analysts had expected full-year growth of 18-20 percent to US$33 billion to US$34 billion. Macau is clambering back after revenue plunged to five-year lows in 2014, but revenue is still far off the highs hit ahead of 2014, hovering only around monthly tolls seen in 2011, data from Thomson Reuters Datastream showed. Monthly gambling revenue last month was up 15 percent to 22.7 billion patacas.
COMMODITIES
Cotton streak set to continue
The longest winning streak in two decades propelled cotton to last year’s biggest increase among crop commodities, and hedge funds are ready for more gains this year. Of the nine components tracked by the Bloomberg Agriculture Subindex, only cotton and wheat contracts posted gains last year. The fiber led the way with an 11 percent advance as demand grew for US exports. Prices capped last year with 10 straight weekly gains, the best streak since 1998. Cotton was also one of the few crops about which hedge funds became more positive during the course of the year. Money managers held a net-long position, or the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a decline, of 102,402 futures and options as of Dec. 26, up from 76,052 at the end of 2016, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
ENTERTAINMENT
Bar offers bitcoin party
A Singapore bar that bills itself as the world’s highest cryptocurrency club offered a New Year’s Eve package that included a limousine pick-up and butler service — but it cost a whole bitcoin. Skyline, on the 45th floor of a skyscraper overlooking the waterfront, promised a luxury-filled night out, with Champagne and oysters and caviar, but it was not cheap, with the price of bitcoin hovering around US$13,000 on Sunday. The party at Skyline is called “Bianco,” with revelers dressed in white enjoying a night of drinking and dancing before watching the New Year’s fireworks display over the waterfront. While the club has run the night before, it was the first time it offered a bitcoin deal, and customers could also pay in regular cash.
SINGAPORE
Growth beats estimate
Singapore’s economy expanded 3.5 percent last year, more than double the initial government forecast as the country benefited from the global economic upswing, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said in his New Year message on Sunday. Lee said the city-state would press on with economic restructuring and infrastructure projects such its fifth airport terminal as well as review healthcare policies to prepare for an aging population. “All these are essential investments in our future. They require time and resources, and will stretch way beyond this term of government. We have to plan well ahead for them,” Lee said in a statement released by his office. Singapore’s growth comes at the top end of the most recent trade ministry prediction of 3 to 3.5 percent and compares with the median 3.3 percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey. The government is to release preliminary GDP figures for the fourth quarter today.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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