GERMANY
Industry continues to decline
Industrial orders fell for firms for the fourth month in a row in April, official data showed yesterday, confounding analysts’ hopes for a recovery. New contracts dropped 2.5 percent month-on-month, adjusting for price, seasonal and calendar effects, the federal statistics authority Destatis said. The result disappointed analysts’ forecasts of a 0.7 percent increase compared with last month.
INDIA
Repurchase rate increased
The Reserve Bank of India raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2014 and set the stage for a gradual tightening cycle as economic growth rebounds from a four-year low and price pressures build. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to increase the repurchase rate to 6.25 percent from 6 percent on Wednesday, as predicted by 14 of 44 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The central bank kept its policy stance neutral, which suggested the move was a “dovish hike,” Nomura Holdings Inc said.
INVESTMENT
Quarterly guidance a ‘no-no’
Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon are doubling down on their plea for corporations to stop providing quarterly earnings guidance. Buffett and Dimon, the chief executive officers of Berkshire Hathaway Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co respectively, said in a joint Wall Street Journal opinion piece that they are encouraging all public companies to consider moving away from the practice, arguing that it can stifle long-term investments. “Quarterly earnings guidance often leads to an unhealthy focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term strategy, growth and sustainability,” they wrote.
AUTOMAKERS
Volvo bets on driverless cars
Volvo Cars is betting that driverless vehicles will make up one-third of its deliveries by the middle of the next decade, setting the auto industry’s most ambitious target yet for the technology. Half of the cars the Swedish company offers would be available through its subscription service, creating links to more than 5 million consumers and generating new sources of revenue, Volvo said yesterday.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Coinbase to buy brokerage
Coinbase Inc, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, agreed to buy a registered broker-dealer as it races to build a trading platform for the surging number of digital tokens deemed to be securities. The San Francisco-based company announced a trio of acquisitions on Wednesday, including a takeover of Keystone Capital Corp, firm overseen by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Subject to US regulatory approval, Coinbase plans to use licenses it gets in the deals to offer customers securities that trade on a blockchain ledger.
BANKING
Ex-Anglo Irish CEO guilty
The former chief executive officer of Anglo Irish Bank was on Wednesday found guilty of fraud and false accounting at the institution whose rapid fall from grace epitomized the Irish financial collapse. David Drumm, 51, had denied conspiring in 2008 to inflate deposits in the bank by 7.2 billion euros (US$8.5 billion at the current exchange rate), at the start of the crisis that would see Anglo Irish taken into government hands. He was accused of transferring huge sums between his bank and another financial institution to make the bank’s balance sheet look better than it was.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
CHEMICAL FIRE: 10 Indian employees were injured by smoke inhalation at a Tata Electronics plant in Tamil Nadu state that produces components for Apple Inc At least 10 people received medical treatment, with two hospitalized after a major fire on Saturday disrupted production at a key Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd plant in southern India that makes Apple Inc’s iPhone components. The fire occurred at the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state that makes some iPhone components. It broke out near another building inside the Tata complex, which was to begin producing complete iPhones in the coming months. The fire was contained to one building and has been extinguished fully, top district administrative official K.M. Sarayu said. No decision has been made on when
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