UNITED STATES
Service sector growth slows
Growth in the services sector, where most Americans work, slowed last month following record expansion in May. The Institute for Supply Management on Tuesday said that its monthly survey of service industries retreated to a reading of 60.1, following an all-time high of 64 in May. Any reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding. It was the 13th straight month of expansion in the services sector, but the employment index fell into contraction territory with a reading of 49.3, down from May’s 55.3, suggesting many companies are still struggling to hire enough workers.
UNITED KINGDOM
House prices fall
House prices last month fell for the first time in five months, an indication the property market might have lost momentum as a tax incentive was due to come to an end. The average value of a home declined 0.5 percent to ￡260,358 (US$358,993), mortgage lender Halifax said yesterday. The drop followed a 1.2 percent increase in May. A tax break worth as much as ￡15,000 to buyers helped the property market defy the plight of the wider economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but those still looking for a home last month were almost certainly too late to benefit in full from the waiver, which began to wind down on Thursday last week.
APPAREL
Esquel suing US government
Hong Kong giant Esquel Group (溢達集團) said that it is suing the US government for what it called the “erroneous” blacklisting of a subsidiary, saying it had been “falsely implicated” in the use of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. The unit, Changji Esquel Textile Co (昌吉溢達紡織), was added to the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List during the administration of former US president Donald Trump. That designation prohibits US firms from doing business with listed companies without first obtaining a government license. Esquel Group said that the listing was made with no “supporting evidence” and that its factories in Xinjiang do not use forced labor.
ELECTRONICS
New Switch unveiled
Nintendo Co announced a new Switch console for release on Oct. 8, a US$350 gadget likely to stimulate a wave of new software and holiday-season sales. The new device marks the first major hardware upgrade to the console originally released in 2017 for US$299. Its key upgrades are a larger 7-inch OLED screen and a doubling of onboard storage to 64GB. It also comes with improved audio, and a new adjustable stand and dock, according to a statement from the company on Tuesday. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa in May said that the Switch’s sales momentum is unprecedented in the company’s 131-year history.
HOSPITALITY
Spoons seeks debt waivers
British pub operator JD Wetherspoon PLC yesterday said that it plans to seek debt waivers from its lenders for the next financial year, as like-for-like sales continue to slump, despite the easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The company said like-for-like bar and food sales slipped 49 percent between April 12 and May 16, a period when outdoor dining was permitted, albeit with some restrictions, while sales were down 14.6 percent between May 17 and Sunday, when pubs were fully open. Wetherspoon, popularly known as just “Spoons,” slumped to a first-half loss in March.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
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