JAPAN
BOJ keeps rates steady
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday kept monetary policy steady, but offered a bleaker view on exports and output. “Exports and factory output continue to increase, although they are partly affected by supply constraints,” the BOJ said in a statement announcing the decision. That was a gloomier view than in July, when it said exports and output “continued to increase steadily.” As widely expected, the BOJ maintained its short-term interest rate target at minus-0.1 percent and at about zero for 10-year bond yields.
CHINA
Holiday spending weak
COVID-19 restrictions have disrupted another holiday spending period, worsening the growth outlook for the world’s second-largest economy. Travel over the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday was at 87 percent of the level recorded during the same period in 2019, with people making 88.2 million trips, Ministry of Culture and Tourism data showed. Tourism revenue reached 79 percent of 2019’s level, suggesting that consumers were not confident to spend or were making cheaper trips.
UNITED KINGDOM
Losses from scams surge
Increasingly tech-savvy criminals are turning to fake Web sites, online dating profiles and even impersonating your boss to trick consumers into authorizing fraudulent payments. Losses related to such tactics — known as authorized push payment scams — rose 71 percent in the first half of the year to £355 million (US$484 million), said a report published yesterday by UK Finance, a lobby group for the banking industry. Cases rose 60 percent to 106,164.
GAMBLING
Entain stock jumps on offer
Entain PLC’s shares yesterday jumped 10 percent to a record high after the gambling firm announced a US$22.4 billion takeover proposal from US-based DraftKings Inc. The British group’s shares hit £24.9 after the opening bell on the UK’s blue-chip index, compared with the £28 per share proposed by DraftKings — a 46.2 percent premium to Entain’s closing price on Monday. Markets have also been pricing in the prospects of another bid from casino group MGM Resorts International, with which Entain has a joint venture in the US. Entain in January rejected an US$11 billion offer from MGM.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Lead times up to 21 weeks
The amount of time it is taking for chip-starved companies to get orders filled stretched to 21 weeks last month, indicating the shortages that have crippled auto production and held back growth in the electronics industry are getting worse. Chip lead times, the gap between ordering a semiconductor and taking delivery, increased by six days to about 21 weeks last month from the previous month, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group. That gap was already the longest wait time since the firm began tracking the data in 2017.
ENERGY
Total CEO under probe
TotalEnergies SE chief executive Patrick Pouyanne is the subject of a preliminary investigation into alleged conflict of interest, the French financial prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, confirming earlier reports. The probe was opened following a complaint filed at the end April by the French arm of Greenpeace, as well as by anti-corruption group Anticor, and an association called La Sphinx, which says it represents students and alumni of the university.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”