UNITED STATES
House prices bounce back
House prices rebounded strongly last month, suggesting underlying demand and a shortage of homes for sale are underpinning the market after a tax break on purchases was withdrawn. The 2.1 percent increase, the second-largest gain in 15 years, followed a 0.6 percent decline in July, when the tapering of a year-long stamp duty holiday landed buyers of more expensive homes with a significant tax bill. The annual pace of growth accelerated to 11 percent from 10.5 percent, the figures from Nationwide Building Society showed. The average house price stood at ￡248,857 (US$342,419) last month, an increase of almost ￡25,000 compared with a year earlier, Nationwide said.
GERMANY
Retail sales fall 5.1 percent
Retail sales fell by far more than expected in July after two months of sharp increases, data showed yesterday. The Federal Statistics Office said retail sales dropped 5.1 percent on the month in real terms after a revised jump of 4.5 percent in June and an increase of 4.6 percent in May. The July reading missed a Reuters forecast for a fall of 0.9 percent. The monthly comparison was distorted heavily by the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on shopping in most parts of the nation in June, the statistics office said. Retail sales edged down by 0.3 percent in real terms year-on-year, it added.
EL SALVADOR
Bitcoin fund approved
Congress on Tuesday approved a law to create a US$150 million fund to facilitate conversions from bitcoin to US dollars ahead of the Central American nation’s planned adoption of the cryptocurrency as legal tender next week. With 64 votes in favor and 14 votes against, Congress approved the fund as the nation prepares to officially adopt bitcoin on Tuesday next week. The Central American nation would be the first in the world to use the cryptocurrency as legal tender. Money for the new fund would be redirected from the Ministry of Finance’s budget and administered by State Development Bank of El Salvador, lawmakers said.
AIRLINES
SAS’ net loss narrows
Scandinavian airline SAS yesterday said that it sees encouraging signs of travel increasing, but it still faces “headwinds” from the COVID-19 pandemic as it reported a narrower net loss. The carrier reported a net loss of 1.36 billion Swedish kronor (US$157.6 million) for May to July, down from a net loss of 2.37 billion kronor for the same period the previous year. Revenue rose to 3.98 billion kronor, from 2.5 billion kronor a year earlier, the company said, driven mainly by increased demand, but the company noted that was still 70 percent below the same quarter of 2019, which was unaffected by COVID-19.
INTERNET
Google extends home work
Google is extending its voluntary return-to-office policy through January next year, chief executive Sundar Pichai said on Tuesday, citing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in many parts of the world. The rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is also making companies reconsider their mask mandates and vaccination policies. “Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions,” Pichai said in an e-mail to employees.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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