UNITED STATES
Trade deficit extends decline
The nation’s trade deficit continued to tumble in November last year, hitting its lowest level in three years as imports of crude oil, computers and industrial supplies fell off sharply, the government reported on Tuesday. The trade gap fell 8.2 percent to US$43.1 billion, even less than economists had expected and the lowest since October 2016, Department of Commerce data showed. Imports fell 1.7 percent to US$251.7 billion for the month, the lowest level in more than two years, as Americans purchased fewer mobile phones, artwork, civilian aircraft and computers.
CANADA
November deficit hits low
The nation posted a C$1.1 billion (US$847.1 million) trade deficit in November last year, down sharply from the previous month amid disruptions caused by a railroad strike, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday. Exports fell 1.4 percent to C$48.7 billion, the lowest level for November since 2013, while imports slid 2.4 percent to C$49.8 billion. Meanwhile, the trade deficit for October was revised upward to C$1.6 billion, from a previous estimate of C$1.1 billion.
GERMANY
Industrial orders decline
New orders for industrial firms fell in November last year, official data showed on Monday, continuing a run of weak data for Europe’s powerhouse. Fresh contracts fell 1.3 percent month-on-month, the Federal Statistical Office said in seasonally adjusted figures, the second monthly slip in a row and short of analysts’ expectations for slight growth. Excluding volatile large orders for items such as aircraft, the picture was slightly rosier, showing a 1 percent increase in business, but in a year-on-year comparison, new orders were down 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
AIRLINES
United takes US$90m HK hit
United Airlines Holdings Inc on Tuesday said that it would take a US$90 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings because of a drop in value of its routes to Hong Kong, which has been affected by months of pro-democracy protests. United said that lower demand for travel to Hong Kong reduced its revenue for each seat flown per mile, a measure that airline investors watch closely. That led to its calculation of the noncash impairment charge, it said. The grounding of Boeing Co’s 737 MAX has also hurt United, causing it to cancel thousands of flights.
ARGENTINA
S&P corrects debt grade
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday raised its debt grade for the country, acknowledging that it made a mistake when it changed the rating late last month. S&P bumped the rating on foreign long-term debt from “CC” to “CCC-,” taking it up two notches from “SD” and back to where it was prior to Dec. 20, when the country was declared in default. However, the credit outlook remains “negative,” it said.
CONSULTING
Accenture to buy unit
Consulting giant Accenture PLC has agreed to buy a cybersecurity services business from Broadcom Inc that had been part of Symantec’s enterprise division. Accenture is buying the unit, which has 300 employees, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in March, the firm said in a statement. Broadcom acquired the unit as part of its US$10.7 billion deal to buy Symantec’s enterprise software division last year.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of