CANADA
Trade deficit expands
The trade deficit in goods in May widened from C$1.9 billion to C$2.8 billion (US$1.45 billion to US$2.14 billion) as imports rose while exports edged down, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Pushed by a 17.7 percent rise in orders of aircraft and other transportation equipment — the fifth consecutive monthly rise for that category — Canadian imports rose 1.7 percent to C$51.1 billion in May, it said. The year-on-year increase was 3.5 percent. Exports for the month slipped 0.1 percent to C$48.3 billion.
ETHIOPIA
‘Pro-poor’ budget passed
Parliament passed a 346.9 billion birr (US$12.58 billion) budget, about two-thirds of it poverty reduction programs involving health, education and food security. In televised comments, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the budget as “pro-poor” and said that the government still needs US$7.5 billion to finish so-called megaprojects, including sugar factories and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. As a result, it would not begin new projects in the 2018-to-2019 fiscal year, he said.
OIL AND GAS
BP to buy US shale basins
BP PLC has emerged as the front-runner to buy BHP Billiton Ltd’s onshore oil and gas operations in the US, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters earlier reported that BP made an offer of more than US$10 billion. The assets up for grabs include about 323,749 hectares in four US shale basins, including the Permian Basin, one of the most productive oilfields in the world. The London-based firm has made the highest offer for the assets, which BHP would prefer to sell in a single package, the person said.
STOCK MARKET
Swiss bourse goes digital
SIX Group, the owner of Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange securities exchange in Zurich, is creating a platform for trading digital assets, boosting a nascent industry that some countries are trying to suffocate. The new platform is to offer a “fully integrated, end-to-end trading, settlement and custody service,” the world’s first to do so, the bourse said in a statement on Friday.
MEDIA
Gawker blogs might be sold
Univision Holdings Inc is considering selling its English-language Web sites, including the former gawker.com blog properties, people with knowledge of the situation said. The move would put a group of sites including gizmodo.com, deadspin.com and jezebel.com on the block, the people said. Univision is working with financial advisers on the process, they said. Univision bought the former Gawker Media LLC Web sites for US$135 million at a 2016 bankruptcy auction.
TECHNOLOGY
Sonos plans initial listing
Wireless speaker maker Sonos Inc filed for a US initial public offering. The Santa Barbara, California-based company filed with an offering size of US$100 million, a placeholder amount that is likely to change. It plans to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SONO, a regulatory filing on Friday said. Sonos, a pioneer in the market for Internet-connected speakers, is targeting a valuation of US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion in the initial listing, people said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last 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 rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
RSS