AUTOMAKERS
SEC probes Musk, brother
US market regulators are investigating whether Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk and his brother contravened insider trading rules in connection with share sales last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The US Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly launched its probe after Kimbal Musk sold US$108 million in Tesla stock last year, just a day before a significant drop in the electric vehicle maker’s share price. Tesla stock value fell sharply after Elon Musk posted a Twitter poll asking whether he should sell 10 percent of his stake in the company. The probe is to determine whether Elon Musk told his brother, also a member of the Tesla board of directors, that he would post the tweet and whether Kimbal Musk then traded, the Journal reported.
FRANCE
Inflation tops estimates
Inflation accelerated more than expected, complicating the European Central Bank’s efforts to smoothly withdraw stimulus amid economic disruption from Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Consumer prices in the eurozone’s second-largest economy rose 4.1 percent this month from a year earlier, after it oncreased 3.3 percent last month, national statistics agency INSEE said. Economists had forecast a 3.7 percent advance. The inflation report showed energy surging 21 percent, while prices for food, manufacturing goods and services all picked up. Consumer spending shrank 1.5 percent last month from December last year, the agency said. Economists had forecast a 0.8 percent decline. Producer prices rose 22.2 percent annually last month, INSEE said. It confirmed a 0.7 percent expansion in economic output in the fourth quarter of last year.
GERMANY
Economy beats predictions
The economy shrank less than initially reported at the end of last year, with the statistics office citing uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the major reason for the revision. Output declined 0.3 percent last quarter, compared with a preliminary reading of minus-0.7 percent. The Bundesbank predicts the economy might also contract in the first three months of this year amid virus-related absence of workers across all sectors. Economists said that trade links between Russia and Ukraine, and Europe’s largest economy are small, leaving energy costs as one of the biggest risks. Inflation is already running higher than 5 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Dell misses profit forecast
Dell Technologies Inc on Thursday gave a profit forecast and reported quarterly earnings that fell short of Wall Street estimates, sending shares down as much as 12 percent in extended trading. Profit, excluding some items, would be US$1.25 to US$1.50 per share in the period ending in April, Dell executives said on a conference call. Analysts, on average, projected US$1.52 per share. Earlier, the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of US$1.72 per share, compared with estimates of US$1.94, on a “higher than anticipated” tax rate. Revenue increased 16 percent to US$27.9 billion in the three months ended on Jan. 28, slightly better than analysts’ average projection of US$27.5 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Sales were bolstered by a 26 percent rise in fiscal fourth-quarter revenue from PCs to US$17.3 billion, the Round Rock, Texas-based company said in a statement.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
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