AUSTRALIA
Joblessness still above 5%
The jobless rate held above 5 percent last month, despite a surge in hiring, underscoring the Reserve Bank of Australia’s challenge to drive down unemployment and stoke inflation. While the economy added 42,300 roles last month, new entrants were absorbed by a jobs market that swelled to a record, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney yesterday. That left the jobless rate at 5.2 percent, which is well above the 4.5 percent level the central bank estimates is needed to revive price pressures. The bank resumed cutting interest rates last week after a three-year hiatus.
UNITED STATES
Consumer prices rise 0.1%
Consumer prices increased a slight 0.1 percent last month from April, as inflation was tempered by lower costs for gasoline, electricity and used vehicles. The Department of Labor on Wednesday said that the consumer price index rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.1 percent last month and 2 percent from a year earlier. Inflation has been consistently muted, slightly below or near the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent.
RETAIL
Jet.com president job cut
Walmart Inc is eliminating the position of president at its Jet.com subsidiary, which it acquired in 2016, as it further merges the rest of its team with its namesake online operations. As part of the changes, Jet.com president Simon Belsham is to leave in August. Strategy and management of Jet.com is to fall under Kieran Shanahan, who would continue to oversee food, consumables, health and wellness for Walmart.com, the company said on Wednesday.
RETAIL
Tesco downbeat over Brexit
Tesco PLC started the financial year on a downbeat note as the UK’s largest retailer said that sales were held back by the political turmoil over the UK’s plan to leave the EU. Comparable sales in the UK rose 0.4 percent in the first quarter, half the rate analysts expected. Results show that the supermarket operator is not immune to the challenges facing other British retailers, which are being squeezed by competition from discounters, the rise of online shopping and side effects of Brexit.
INVESTMENT
Foreign stakes drop globally
Global foreign direct investment declined last year and trade tensions could hinder its recovery this year, according to the UN. Foreign direct investment flows to developed economies dropped 27 percent to their lowest point since 2004, the UN said in its World Investment Report published on Wednesday. At the global level, flows declined by 13 percent to US$1.3 trillion, mainly because of large-scale repatriations of foreign earnings by US multinationals.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault, Fiat deal hindered
Renault SA chairman Jean-Dominique Senard on Wednesday expressed his frustration with the French government for resisting a merger deal proposed by rival automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Senard told a shareholders’ meeting in Paris that “I have rarely seen a merger proposal that could give so much positive synergy, incredibly validating and robust.” However, the French government had not shared his analysis of the benefits of the merger “at this stage,” Senard said. “I can frankly say that disappoints me,” he added.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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