EUROPE
Inflation hits all-time high
Eurozone inflation climbed to another all-time high, supporting calls for the Central Bank to follow up its first interest rate increase since 2011 with another big move. Consumer prices so far this month jumped 8.9 percent from a year earlier — up from 8.6 percent last month and driven once again by soaring energy and food costs. The number overshot the expectations of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who saw a gain of 8.7 percent. After slowing last month, a gauge of underlying inflation that excludes energy and food also hit a record of 4 percent. The intensifying price pressures prompted the Central Bank to surprise economists by delivering a half-point increase in its deposit rate this month.
ELECTRONICS
Sony downgrades outlook
Sony Group Corp downgraded its profit outlook for the fiscal year, with its PlayStation division expected to contribute less than previously forecast. The Tokyo-based entertainment conglomerate yesterday said that it now expects ￥1.11 trillion (US$8.3 billion) in operating profit, down from ￥1.16 trillion previously. The gaming and network services group, which houses the PlayStation business, accounted for the full revision, which was down from ￥305 billion to ￥255 billion. Sony cited costs related to its acquisition of Bungie Inc and lower expectations for third-party software sales on the platform as reason for the change. Sony’s second-quarter operating profit beat estimates, coming in at ￥307 billion, higher than the average analyst estimate of ￥286.7 billion. The outlook downgrade came after Sony’s hardware production was limited by supply chain bottlenecks exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
TECHNOLOGY
Smartphone shipments fall
Global smartphone shipments last quarter fell to their lowest in two years after consumer confidence was sapped by inflation and recession fears. The quarter saw a 9 percent drop to about 290 million units shipped, market trackers Canalys and Counterpoint said, with Chinese vendors leading the declines. Market leader Samsung Electronics Co retained the top spot with about 62 million units, while Apple Inc held second, followed by Xiaomi Corp (小米), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀) and Vivo Communication Technology Co (維沃). The Chinese trio each registered double-digit percentage drops in shipments, with Xiaomi down 25 percent. Prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and Beijing took a toll on domestic sales in China, while the wider market is now challenged by a glut of lower-priced devices and reluctant consumers, the analysts said.
UNITED STATES
Economy contracts in Q2
The economy contracted for a second straight quarter between April and last month, official data released on Thursday showed, adding fuel to recession fears and creating a headache for President Joe Biden ahead of midterm elections. GDP declined at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter, following a bigger drop in the first three months of the year, the Department of Commerce said. Biden said the economy is “on the right path,” despite the slowdown, touting the strong labor market. After a 1.6 percent decline in the first quarter, the report said the slowdown in the second quarter was largely due to drops in government spending and private spending in vehicles and housing, despite an increase in exports. Personal consumption expenditures continued to rise, although slower than in the previous quarter, the data showed.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
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