UNITED STATES
Trade deficit hits record
The nation’s trade gap widened to a record last year, although it expanded less than expected in December, government data showed on Tuesday, capping off the year on robust imports and strong spending. The overall trade gap grew US$103 billion from 2021 to US$948.1 billion last year, Department of Commerce data showed, on a surge in imported goods ranging from crude oil to consumer items, including pharmaceuticals and household products. This marks the biggest deficit dating back to 1960, government data showed. The trade deficit in December expanded US$6.4 billion to US$67.4 billion.
ENERGY
Total boosts dividends
TotalEnergies SE has raised its proposed dividend and plans to buy back a further US$2 billion of shares after surging oil and gas prices lifted last year’s profit to a record US$36.2 billion. The French energy giant capped another stellar quarter for big oil, with most companies pledging more generous returns to investors, while also paying down debt and in some cases boosting investment. TotalEnergies’ fourth-quarter dividend would be 0.74 euros a share, an increase of 7.3 percent from the prior period. Adjusted net income was US$7.56 billion in the fourth quarter, 11 percent higher than a year earlier. For last year as a whole, profit doubled from the prior year.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple expands payment test
Apple Inc has expanded an internal test of its upcoming “buy now, pay later” service to the company’s thousands of retail employees. The tech giant contacted retail staffers this week to offer them a test version of the service, said Apple workers who asked not to be identified. The first version of the new service would allow consumers to split a purchase made through Apple Pay into four installments paid over six weeks — without interest or fees. The company has also been developing a version of the service by working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc that would split up the cost of large transactions over several months with interest, people said.
AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen profit surges
Volkswagen AG posted higher operating profits and sales for last year, but missed its cash flow target due to supply problems, preliminary figures published on Tuesday showed. Operating profit before exceptional items rose 12.5 percent to about 22.5 billion euros (US$24 billion) and revenues were up 11.5 percent at 279 billion euros, the company said. Volkswagen had forecast an increase of between 8 and 13 percent. Earnings rose, despite a drop in sales, with Volkswagen reporting at the beginning of the year a 7 percent drop in the number of vehicles sold last year.
BANKING
Russia exit affects SocGen
Rising interest rates last year bolstered Societe Generale SA’s (SocGen) operations, but the French bank yesterday said that its net profit was dragged lower by the exit from its businesses in Russia. At 2 billion euros, net profits were only slightly more than a third of the record 5.6 billion euros earned in 2021, although revenue rose 8.8 percent to a record 28.1 billion euros. Without the 3 billion euros written off due to the exit from its Russian unit, Rosbank, SocGen would have posted a net profit similar to the record 2021 performance. Despite the drop in net profits, the bank said it would pay shareholders the equivalent of 2.25 euros per share.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
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