PHILIPPINES
Central bank holds key rate
The central bank yesterday held its key interest rate at a record low for a third straight meeting, even as it voiced concern about fast-rising prices. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas left the benchmark rate at 2 percent, as predicted by all 23 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. With inflation expected to breach the upper limit of its 2 to 4 percent target this year, the bank said that it is vigilant for any evidence that supply bottlenecks are sparking wider price pressures.
SWITZERLAND
SNB keeps expansive policy
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) yesterday kept its ultra-expansive monetary policy on hold, holding in place the world’s lowest interest rates and readiness to launch currency interventions, despite a recent weakening in the Swiss franc. The central bank kept its policy rate locked at minus-0.75 percent, as unanimously forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. As expected, it also retained the interest rate it charges commercial banks on some deposits they park overnight with it at minus-0.75 percent.
BANKING
Banknote honors Turing
The Bank of England yesterday unveiled the design of a new banknote celebrating mathematician Alan Turing, who helped the UK win World War II with his code-breaking skills, but is believed to have killed himself after being convicted for having sex with a man. The new £50 note features an image of Turing, mathematical formulae that laid the groundwork for modern computer science and technical drawings for the machines used to decipher the Enigma code.
FINANCE
ADB warns on Asian debt
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned that rising US yields could trigger currency and debt crises across Asia like past shocks that rocked emerging markets. “Past experience shows that whenever US yields go up, capital markets in emerging and developing markets take a major hit,” ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa said in an interview this week. “We are very concerned about the potential risks surrounding the debt pileup.”
GAMING
GameStop shares tank
GameStop Corp, the roller-coaster stock championed by Reddit-based traders, tumbled on Wednesday on disappointing fourth-quarter earnings. Shares of the video-game retailer fell 34 percent to US$120.34 in New York, its steepest decline in seven weeks, after reporting profit in the period ended Jan. 30 of US$1.34 a share. That compared with an average projection of US$1.43 from analysts. Net sales fell 3.3 percent to US$2.12 billion in the quarter, short of the US$2.24 billion estimate. Still, new game consoles helped lift same-store sales by 6.5 percent, with online revenue up 175 percent.
EQUITIES
Chinese stocks risk delisting
The threat of Chinese stocks being kicked off US exchanges is gaining traction, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) starting to implement a law passed at the end of former US president Donald Trump’s administration. In a Wednesday statement, the SEC said it was taking initial steps to force accounting firms to let US regulators review the financial audits of overseas companies. The penalty for noncompliance, as stipulated by the law approved late last year, is ejection from the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ for any business that does not allow their audit to be inspected.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
A move by US President Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is expected to place Taiwan-made steel, which already has a 25 percent tariff, on an equal footing, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, association chairman Hwang Chien-chih (黃建智) said such an equal footing is expected to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge against other countries in the US market, describing the tariffs as "positive" for Taiwanese steel exporters. On Monday, Trump signed two executive orders imposing the new metal tariffs on imported steel and aluminum with no exceptions and exemptions, effective