NEW ZEALAND
Central bank maintains rate
The central bank’s freeze on its benchmark interest rate extended to two years yesterday, with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand saying that there was little prospect of it moving from record lows until 2020. The official cash rate has been unchanged at 1.75 percent since November 2016 as the bank takes a hands-off approach to maintaining economic growth. Bank Governor Adrian Orr indicated there was no compelling reason for change.
GERMANY
Exports decline
Exports unexpectedly declined in September, a weak end to a quarter that could see the economy stagnate for the first time in more than three years. Exports fell 0.8 percent from August, missing forecasts for a 0.4 percent jump. Imports slipped 0.4 percent and the trade surplus widened to 18.4 billion euros (US$21 billion), the most since June, the Federal Statistics Office said yesterday.
UNITED STATES
China, India dumped pipes
The Department of Commerce on Wednesday said that it had found that China and India unfairly subsidized and dumped large-diameter welded pipes in the US. The department said it found that the two countries had sold the pipes at less than fair value, at rates ranging from 50.55 to 132.63 percent. It also said it found that the two countries had subsidized the products at rates of 198.49 to 541.15 percent.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW Q3 profit drops 24%
German luxury automaker BMW AG on Wednesday said that its net profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter of the year as the company spent more on new technology and faced market disruptions related to new EU emissions tests. Net profit fell to 1.4 billion euros from 1.84 billion euros in the same period last year, while revenue rose 4.7 percent to 24.74 billion euros.
FASHION
Burberry revenue slips 3%
Burberry Group PLC said it had seen an “exceptional response” to the creative vision of its new designer, Riccardo Tisci, after it reported a slight dip in first-half revenue and operating profit. Revenue was ￥1.22 billion (US$1.6 billion), down 3 percent, but ahead of analyst forecasts, and adjusted operating profit reached ￥178 million, down 4 percent. Burberry said its outlook for the full year was unchanged.
MEDIA
Papers boost News Corp
Profits rose in the past quarter at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, led by gains in digital subscriptions at the Wall Street Journal, as well as newspapers in Britain and Australia, the company said on Wednesday. Net profit in the most recent quarter jumped 47 percent from a year ago to US$128 million on revenue that grew 23 percent to US$2.5 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
Lenovo posts one-off gains
Lenovo Group Ltd’s (聯想) net income beat analysts’ expectations by US$53 million, or 45 percent. While that upside surprise was helped by slightly stronger revenue and a slimmer operating-expense margin — from a reduction in sales and distribution costs — operating income benefited a lot from one-time accounting items. A fall in gross margin by 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 13.4 percent is a hint that profitability is not as solid as it looks.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
NEXT GENERATION: The new 3-nanometer chip has 28 percent more transistors and offers up to 80 percent faster language model performance than its predecessor MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Wednesday launched a new flagship smartphone chip, Dimensity 9400, made with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) enhanced 3-nanometer technology, aiming to bring more artificial intelligence (AI) applications to edge devices like phones. The Dimensity 9400 is the second smartphone chip using TSMC’s second-generation 3-nanometer technology, after Apple Inc’s A18 Pro chip for the new iPhone 16 series. The new mobile chip has 28 percent more transistors, offers up to 80 percent faster large language model performance and is up to 35 percent more power-efficient than its predecessor, Dimensity 9300, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi Corp (小米),
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