AUSTRALIA
Housing prices plummet
Sydney’s property downturn accelerated last month, propelling nationwide housing prices to the biggest monthly drop since the global financial crisis, as credit curbs and buyer nerves continue to bite. Nationwide home values fell 0.7 percent last month, led by a 1.4 percent drop in Sydney and 1 percent in Melbourne, according to CoreLogic Inc data released yesterday. The drop takes the total decline in Sydney since peak in July last year to 9.5 percent, on the cusp of overtaking the 9.6 percent top-to-bottom decline recorded during the last recession 27 years ago.
SOUTH AFRICA
Government eyes rating
The government is prioritizing regaining an investment-grade rating on its debt as part of its plans to revive a stagnant economy, Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni said on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Argentina on Saturday. While Mboweni said he is not sure how long it will take to recover investment-grade status, the government needs to enhance policy certainty and credibility, lower debt and show restraint in fiscal support for struggling state-owned companies. Moody’s Investor Service is the only one of the three major credit-rating companies that still assesses the country’s debt at investment grade.
INVESTMENT
Group bids for GrainCorp
A group of Australian investors backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc offered A$2.4 billion (US$1.8 billion) to take control of GrainCorp Ltd, five years after the Australian government rejected a foreign bid for the crop handler. The newly formed asset manager, led by prominent businessman Tony Shepherd and Lance Hockridge, offered A$10.42 a share in cash. That was 43 percent more than GrainCorp’s last closing price on Friday.
MEDIA
Nexstar to buy Tribune
Nexstar Media Group Inc agreed to buy Tribune Media Co for US$4.1 billion, creating the largest owner of local TV stations in the US, according to a person with knowledge with the matter. Nexstar outbid private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC with an all-cash offer that values Tribune at about US$46.50 a share, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the purchase is not yet public.
UNITED STATES
Banks maintain Fed forecasts
Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are sticking by their forecasts that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates four times next year, while acknowledging that the risks to their outlook mounted this week. “Recent events have increased the downside risks to our baseline forecast,’’ Goldman economists led by Jan Hatzius said in a report. Nevertheless, they joined counterparts at Morgan Stanley in saying that Fed might this month reduce the number of rate increases they expect for next year to two from three.
UNITED STATES
NYSE to close in mourning
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is to be closed tomorrow for a national day of mourning to honor former president George H.W. Bush. The NYSE was yesterday to observe a minute of silence in honor of the former president, said Kristen Kaus, a spokeswoman for the exchange. The nation’s financial markets traditionally close following a presidential death.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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