FRANCE
Confidence dips three points
Consumer confidence this month fell further below its long-term average to its lowest level in more than three-and-a-half years, data from statistics agency INSEE showed. The monthly reading dropped to 92 from 95, while economists were expecting only a one-point decline. Consumption is already facing disruption from protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s gasoline taxes. Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire on Monday said that sales for large retailers have fallen by as much as 35 percent on days when protesters have blocked roads, fuel depots and warehouses. With household spending and investment making up about 60 percent of GDP, consumer weakness could dent growth at the end of the year and derail the government’s deficit reduction plans.
INTERNET
Facebook behind Alibaba
Facebook Inc crises this year have weighed heavily on the social media giant, dragging shares more than 37 percent from their July peak and erasing nearly US$240 billion in value. The fall has allowed Chinese Internet behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) to once again overtake Facebook in market capitalization. It is the second time this year Alibaba has topped its US rival, the first coming in March following revelations surrounding Cambridge Analytica.
UNITED KINGDOM
One-quarter of pubs lost
The nation has lost almost one-quarter of its pubs since the financial crisis a decade ago, but the decline has not been uniform, with big chains gaining at the expense of small independent hostelries, which have struggled with rising costs, shifting consumer habits and a challenging economic environment. Wiltshire and Birmingham have been the worst-hit areas since 2008; Hackney in east London, the center of a craft-beer boom, has seen the largest number of pub openings, Office for National Statistics figures showed.
GAMING
‘Fortnite’ draws over 200m
Hit e-sport title Fortnite has now hooked more than 200 million players, up from Epic Games Inc’s estimate of 125 million registered users in June. The game’s player count is also five times the company’s tally in January. The game is free to play and available on multiple devices, from mobile phones to traditional video game consoles, with Epic making money by charging players for decorative items such as costumes and props. Those purchases add up. Last month, Epic raised US$1.25 billion from an investor group that included KKR & Co, Vulcan Capital and Kleiner Perkins in a deal that valued the closely held company at US$15 billion.
HONG KONG
Housing suggests correction
The housing market is suffering its worst declines since 2016 — by multiple measures. New-home sales this month are on track to be the lowest by volume since January or February, Midland Realty (美聯集團) data showed. Used-home prices have fallen for eight weeks, the longest losing streak since 2016, according to the Centa-City Leading Index (中原城市領先指數). In addition, used-home prices have this month recorded the biggest single-week decline since March 2016, falling 1.3 percent week-on-week, the data showed. Anecdotal evidence, such as reports of slow sales at a Country Garden Holdings Co (碧桂園) project, is also fueling speculation that the world’s least-affordable housing market is heading for a correction. So far, secondary home prices have dipped 5 percent from an August high.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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