JAPAN
Household spending falls
Households pared back their spending in January during the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and renewed restrictions on activity, adding to the risk that the economy will shrink this quarter. Outlays fell 1.2 percent from December last year for the sixth drop in the past nine months as people cut spending on entertainment, clothing and extra schooling, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported yesterday. Compared with the low levels of a full state of emergency a year ago, spending rose 6.9 percent. Economists had forecast a 3.4 percent gain. The fall in spending from the prior month could contribute to the nation’s recovery slipping back into reverse this quarter. Household spending accounts for more than half of GDP.
UNITED KINGDOM
Economy beats expectations
The economy surged at the strongest pace in seven months in January, surpassing levels prevailing before the COVID-19 pandemic. GDP rose 0.8 percent, recovering from an 0.2 percent in December last year, Office for National Statistics figures showed yesterday. The gain was much stronger than the 0.1 percent pace expected by economists. The increase left output about 0.8 percent higher than in February 2020, with all parts of the economy expanding. The figures might embolden the Bank of England to raise interest rates for a third time next week to control inflation, which has leaped to its strongest pace in three decades.
COMMODITIES
Uranium spot prices soar
Uranium spot prices soared to the highest level since the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster on concern that potential sanctions aimed at Russia are poised to roil an already tight market. The price for benchmark Ux U3O8 uranium jumped to US$59.75 per pound on Thursday, data compiled by UxC LLC showed. That is the highest since March 2011, when meltdowns at the Fukushima facility shut Japan’s fleet of nuclear plants, sent a shockwave across the atomic industry and dashed demand for uranium — the fuel used in reactors. The White House is considering sanctions on Russia’s state-owned atomic energy company, Rosatom Corp, intensifying concerns over disruptions to uranium exports from Russia. Rosatom is a delicate target, because the company and its subsidiaries account for more than 35 percent of global uranium enrichment. Russia accounted for 16.5 percent of the uranium imported into the US in 2020.
RIDE HAILING
Didi HK listing denied
Didi Global Inc (滴滴) has suspended preparations for its planned Hong Kong listing after failing to appease Chinese regulators’ demands that it overhaul its systems for handling sensitive user data, people familiar with the matter said. The Cyberspace Administration of China informed Didi executives that their proposals to prevent security and data leaks had fallen short, the people said. Its main apps, removed from local app stores last year, will remain suspended for the time being, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The company and its bankers have halted work on the Hong Kong listing by way of introduction originally slated for around the summer of this year, the people said. In addition to dealing with the cyberspace agency’s review, Didi is also working to finalize its fourth-quarter results as required for a listing prospectus, they said. Didi’s American depositary shares plunged as much as 20 percent in US pre-market trading yesterday.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
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