PHARMACEUTICALS
Pfizer profits from vaccines
Selling vaccines during a pandemic has boosted Pfizer Inc’s bottom line and proven that a strategy it embarked upon more than a decade ago is now paying off handsomely. The New York-based pharmaceutical giant on Tuesday reported that it earned US$4.9 billion in the first three months of this year and it dramatically raised its profit forecast for the full year, thanks to strong demand for its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer almost doubled its sales projections for the vaccine this year, from US$15 billion to about US$26 billion. The company, along with its German partner BioNTech AG, anticipate strong revenue from the vaccine and booster shots for the next three years. The partners expect to deliver about 2.5 billion vaccine doses this year, including 300 million doses for the US, and are prepping for what could become annual booster shots.
LOGISTICS
Maersk upbeat for this year
Maersk A/S yesterday said that it expects an “exceptionally strong” performance in the first quarter to continue for the rest of the year, driven by high demand for shipping containers from China to the US. “Strong demand led to bottlenecks, as well as lack of capacity and equipment, which drove up freight rates to record high levels,” CEO Soren Skou said in a statement. Those factors prompted Maersk last week to raise its outlook for full-year underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to between US$13 billion and US$15 billion from US$8.5 billion and US$10.5 billion. It also lifted its forecast for global container demand growth to 5 to 7 percent from 3 to 5 percent. Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipper, confirmed the 30 percent rise in first-quarter revenue announced in a preliminary trading statement last week and reiterated its upbeat profit outlook for this year.
SEMICONDUCTORS
NXP sells US$2bn of bonds
NXP Semiconductors NV sold US$2 billion of bonds to help finance the development of semiconductors that reduce energy consumption in products like power adapters and electric vehicles. The chipmaker issued bonds in two parts, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. The longer portion of the deal, a 20-year security, yields 1.15 percentage points above US Treasuries, down from the initially targeted 1.5 percent premium, the person said. That equates to about 3.3 percent. The money would partly fund research and development for innovation in green chips, battery control and energy management for electric and hybrid vehicles, smart-building technologies, as well as energy-efficiency measures at its facilities, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Dogecoin surge crashes app
Investors are piling back into some of the fringe corners of the cryptocurrency world, with the frenzy sending dogecoin surging more than 50 percent again and crashing Robinhood Markets Inc’s trading app. Other so-called altcoins also took off, with dash spiking 18 percent over a 24-hour period through yesterday morning in Europe and ethereum classic rising almost 45 percent. In the world of decentralized finance, tokens such as force DAO and tierion surged more than 1,000 percent on Tuesday, CoinMarketCap.com data showed. Robinhood said it resolved earlier issues with crypto trading on its platform. The rallies defied easy explanation and continued a trend that has seen the value of all digital tokens surge past US$2.3 trillion.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
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