CHINA
Consumer prices rise slows
The rise in consumer prices slowed for a second successive month last month, official data showed yesterday, as pork supplies bounce back from the devastating African swine fever while farms recovered from flooding. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.7 percent last month from last year, compared with a 2.4 percent reading in August, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said. The increase was also less than expected. The producer price index, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, fell 2.1 percent year-on-year — more than the 1.8 percent drop forecast in a Bloomberg poll of analysts.
UNITED STATES
Business openings soar
Business formation soared 77 percent in the third quarter, hitting the highest level on record despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to government data released on Wednesday. Applications for tax identification numbers surged to 1.6 million in the period from July to last month, the highest posted since the government began keeping records in 2004, the Department of Commerce said. The biggest increases were in the northeast and midwest, while the west lagged, but still saw a jump of 60 percent.
NETHERLANDS
Home prices surge
Home prices jumped in the third quarter as a shortage of properties enabled the market to shrug off an economic contraction. The median-weighted transaction price climbed 11.6 percent on an annual basis to 354,000 euros (US$416,000), realtors association NVM reported yesterday. In Amsterdam, the country’s biggest city, there was an 8 percent increase.
AUSTRALIA
Job market slows recovery
Unemployment rose slightly to 6.9 percent last month, as COVID-19 kept the brakes on hopes of a speedy economic recovery. The Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday said that unemployment grew 0.1 percent from 6.8 percent in August, with about 20,000 more people leaving the workforce entirely. The latest figures were slightly better than forecasts of 7 percent, but underlying figures suggest enduring economic pain. Almost 1 million people have lost their jobs and many more have been forced to take pay cuts or seen hours slashed.
BANKING
Wells Fargo fires staffers
Wells Fargo & Co fired more than 100 employees for allegedly improperly receiving COVID-19 relief funds, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The firm found staffers who it believes defrauded the US Small Business Administration “by making false representations in applying for coronavirus relief funds for themselves,” an internal memo said. The alleged abuse was tied to the US Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and was outside the employees’ roles at the bank, the memo said.
AIRLINES
Virgin Australia swaps CEO
Former Jetstar CEO Jayne Hrdlicka is to become Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd’s first female chief executive after the struggling airline’s administrators yesterday announced that its current boss would step down. Chief executive and managing director Paul Scurrah, who has held the position for 18 months, would be replaced by Hrdlicka once US private equity firm Bain Capital takes over the carrier, the airline said. Virgin went into voluntary administration in April shortly after Australia closed its international borders and domestic travel plunged.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
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