PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to unveil rapid test
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche Holding AG on Tuesday announced that it would launch at the end of this month a test that detects COVID-19 within 15 minutes. “At launch, there will be 40 million SARS-CoV-2 rapid tests available, per month,” a capacity that would more than double by the end of the year, the company said in a statement. It would first be available for countries that recognize the CE mark for products sold in the EU, but it would be urgently seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, the company said.
BRAZIL
Economy shrinks 9.7% in Q2
The country’s economy contracted a record 9.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous three-month period amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the national statistics institute reported on Tuesday. It was the second consecutive quarter of a decline in the country’s GDP, which is widely considered to be a recession. The decrease in the April-to-June period was the largest quarterly drop since 1996. Financial institutions surveyed by the Central Bank of Brazil on Monday projected that the economy would contract 5.28 percent this year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tax cut boosts house prices
House prices last month increased by the most in 16 years after a tax cut stoked demand, Nationwide Building Society said yesterday. Values rose 2 percent from a month earlier to an average of ￡224,123 (US$299,000), the mortgage lender said. On an annual basis, prices rose 3.7 percent. The question now is how long the boost can be sustained. Government support measures would start to run out next month, and unemployment is expected to rise.
BANKING
Credit Suisse under probe
Switzerland’s financial market oversight body yesterday said that it has opened “enforcement proceedings” against Credit Suisse Group AG in the wake of a spying scandal that has marred the image of the bank. The move by FINMA, the market supervisory authority, comes after an independent investigation ordered by the bank unearthed and detailed a scandal involving spying on a former executive, Iqbal Khan, after he left to join rival bank UBS Group AG.
TELECOMS
AT&T to keep video games
AT&T Inc has removed its Warner Bros video-game business from the list of non-core assets up for sale, deciding it was too valuable to unload during its effort to pay down debt and streamline, people familiar with the situation have said. Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, the gaming unit that is home to titles like Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Mortal Kombat 11, had attracted interest from several major companies and could have reaped US$4 billion, as reported by CNBC in June.
HERBICIDES
Bayer challenges ruling
Bayer AG has asked California’s Supreme Court to review a decision awarding US$20.5 million to a groundskeeper who said that the company’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer, arguing that the ruling was at odds with federal law and settled legal principles. Bayer said the July decision by the California Court of Appeal affirming a 2018 jury verdict in favor of Dewayne Johnson would be relied upon by other courts handling cases over the widely used herbicide.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
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
Her white-gloved, waistcoated uniform impeccable, 22-year-old Hazuki Okuno boards a bullet train replica to rehearse the strict protocols behind the smooth operation of a Japanese institution turning 60 Tuesday. High-speed Shinkansen trains began running between Tokyo and Osaka on Oct. 1, 1964, heralding a new era for rail travel as Japan grew into an economic superpower after World War II. The service remains integral to the nation’s economy and way of life — so keeping it dazzlingly clean, punctual and accident-free is a serious job. At a 10-story, state-of-the-art staff training center, Okuno shouted from the window and signaled to imaginary colleagues, keeping
RSS