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.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
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