AUTOMAKERS
Honda’s Q3 profit up 21%
Honda Motor Co yesterday reported a 21 percent jump in its profit in the last quarter on cost cuts and healthy motorcycle sales. The Tokyo-based Honda, which makes the Fit subcompact, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, reported profit of ￥210.7 billion (US$1.9 billion), up from ￥174 billion. Quarterly sales edged up nearly 2 percent from a year earlier to ￥3.84 trillion, it said.
ENERGY
BP’s Q3 net profit doubles
BP PLC yesterday said its third-quarter net profit doubled on sharply higher crude oil prices. Bottom-line profit after tax surged to US$3.35 billion in the three months to last month, compared with US$1.77 billion a year earlier, the British energy major said in an earnings statement. Underlying replacement-cost profit, which excludes fluctuations in the value of crude oil inventories, also doubled to US$3.8 billion. Revenues jumped almost a third to US$79.5 billion.
BANKING
UBS boss bought shares
UBS AG chief executive officer Sergio Ermotti bought US$13.1 million of shares in Switzerland’s largest bank shortly after its investor day last week, the largest management purchase in years, in a show of confidence to owners of the stock. A spokeswoman for UBS confirmed the purchase. It was the first purchase of the stock by a senior executive since December 2016, data from the Zurich-based SIX Swiss Exchange showed.
AVIATION
Lufthansa’s Q3 profit falls
Lufthansa AG reported falling profits in the third quarter, hit by higher fuel costs and the pricey integration of defunct competitor Air Berlin. Net profit at the Frankfurt-based group fell 10 percent year-on-year, to 1.07 billion euros (US$1.2 billion). Operating profit adjusted for some one-off items — Lufthansa’s preferred measure of its performance — also fell, shedding 10.8 percent to 1.35 billion euros. Revenues grew 1.5 percent to 9.96 billion euros.
TECHNOLOGY
S&P downgrades IBM
S&P Global Ratings on Monday downgraded IBM Corp’s debt rating following its acquisition of cloud computing firm Red Hat Inc for a US$34 billion in cash. S&P said the transaction would increase IBM’s debt level, prompting it to cut the firm’s credit rating to “A” from “A+” as well lower its the outlook on the firm to negative. S&P also said it has changed the outlook on Red Hat’s debt rating to “positive,” and expects to raise the grade to “A” once the deal closes late next year, the same as IBM.
UNITED STATES
Tax cuts did not affect plans
The large bulk of US firms say they did not alter their hiring or investment plans due to the massive tax cuts in December last year, a quarterly survey from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released on Monday found.
They also did not change their plans due to the confrontation with numerous US trade partners, especially China, the survey found. Of the 116 firms surveyed, 81 percent said they had not changed plans due to the tax cuts — an increase from previous surveys, NABE said. Asked about tariffs, quotas and the threats to withdraw from free-trade agreements, 77 percent said they had not changed their hiring, investment or pricing plans. However, NABE said that more manufacturers made changes to react to trade disputes, including 46 percent raising prices and 38 percent delaying investments.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
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