RETAIL
Walmart beats forecasts
Walmart on Thursday posted better-than-expected quarterly profits as its reputation for affordability produced strong US sales growth during the holiday shopping season, offsetting the hit from higher costs. The global retailer, which has seen revenues surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, pointed to about US$400 million in higher-than-expected supply chain costs at its US division, plus an additional US$400 million hit due to employee absences during the Omicron wave of SARS-CoV-2. However, these effects were countered by “strong underlying trends” at Walmart US, “aided by robust consumer spending and a strong holiday,” the firm said at an investor presentation. Walmart highlighted apparel and automotive goods, along with groceries, as items with especially strong demand during the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on Jan. 31. Profits reached US$3.6 billion, compared with a loss of US$2.1 billion a year earlier.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Nvidia underwhelms
Nvidia Corp failed to impress investors with its latest forecast, a sign of the lofty expectations for the most valuable US chipmaker. Although the company topped analysts’ estimates with its latest quarterly results — and projected strong growth for the current period — the shares fell more than 3 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday. CEO and cofounder Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) has turned a niche business — graphics cards for gamers — into a chip empire worth more than US$600 billion. There were some weak spots last quarter. Sales of Nvidia’s auto chips were lower than projected and its adjusted gross margin came in at 67 percent, below what some chipmakers have reported recently. Supply constraints are also weighing on Nvidia’s data-center chip business, but the situation is improving, Huang said.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Golden visas’ scrapped
Britain on Thursday scrapped its so-called “golden visas” for wealthy investors amid concerns about the inflow of illicit Russian money at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine. Hundreds of billions of US dollars have flowed into London and Britain’s overseas territories from Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, raising fears among some allies that illicit money was cascading into the global financial system. British lawmakers on parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in 2020 said that more work needed to be done to tackle “the illicit financial dealings of the Russian elite,” including overhauling the “Tier 1” investor visa system. Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel on Thursday said she had closed the Tier 1 system, which had offered a route to residency for those investing at least ￡2 million (US$2.72 million).
UNITED KINGDOM
Retail sales reverse up
Retail sales grew faster than expected last month, recovering about half the losses suffered when a wave of COVID-19 cases caused many shoppers to stay at home. Retail sales volumes rose 1.9 percent last month after a 4 percent decline in December, the largest rise since lockdown rules for non-essential stores in England were relaxed in April last year. The monthly increase was larger than the average 1 percent gain forecast in a Reuters poll, although December’s drop in sales was slightly bigger than first estimated. However, retailers face rapidly surging consumer price inflation, which hit its highest in nearly 30 years last month at 5.5 percent, and is forecast by the Bank of England to peak above 7 percent in April.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles. By the time she turned 10, she and her friends were spending hours on ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Goddard Strahan developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers. One night, her skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on her face, and her cheeks turn
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
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