Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday voiced optimism about Taiwan’s economy, saying the worst is over and that GDP growth would reach 3 percent next year, which would be favorable to its operations.
Fubon Financial chief economist Rick Lo (羅瑋) unveiled his projections during an online media briefing, citing improvement in the nation’s exports, a critical economic gauge.
Exports last month slipped back into contraction, but might stage a sustained rebound from this month onward, the Ministry of Finance has said.
Photo: CNA
Major tech firms offered similar earnings guidance.
Lo said the market is now less concerned about whether the US Federal Reserve would raise its policy rate by another 25 basis points to tame inflation and avoid asset bubble busts.
The Fed would assign more importance to how its earlier rate hikes would affect the US economy, a process that needs more time to pan out, Lo said.
The restrictive monetary cycle is likely over in light of the latest US inflation data, he added.
The market is now looking at an interest rate cut of 0.75 percentage points by the Fed in June next year to avert a recession, Lo said.
A lenient monetary stance is favorable to corporate investment and capital expenditure as borrowing costs drop.
Private investment is widely expected to regain growth momentum next year after playing a laggard this year, Lo said.
Consumer spending would stay healthy, helped by a resilient job market, although the benefits of revenge consumption would taper off, he said.
Taipei-based Fubon Financial retained its title as the most profitable financial holding company with cumulative net earnings of NT$67.8 billion (US$2.13 billion), or NT$4.94 per share, company data showed.
Fubon Financial said it intends to raise its stakes in bonds and equities if monetary tightening is over.
It trimmed its stock holdings to 7.9 percent at the end of last quarter, from 8.8 percent a year earlier, after realizing capital gains, officials said.
Main subsidiary Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) last quarter became the nation’s second-
largest credit card issuer, based on the number of active cards, after it replaced Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) in August as Costco Taiwan’s exclusive partner.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
AMAZING ABUNDANCE: Elon Musk has announced plans for a new facility in Texas which would manufacture chips for Tesla and SpaceX to use in robotics and AI Elon Musk said his Terafab project — a grand plan to eventually manufacture his own chips for robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and space data centers — would be built in Austin and jointly run by Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). Musk, the chief executive officer of the two companies, said he would start off with an “advanced technology fab” in Austin that would have all of the equipment necessary to make chips of any kind. The project would call for one day supporting 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power per year, the amount Musk expects the companies to
RSS