■ Regulations
Brokerages investigated
US federal regulators are investigating more than a dozen major brokerage firms for possibly executing some stock trades in ways that favor the firms at the expense of their customers, people familiar with the matter said Monday. Examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission discovered the trading patterns -- in which the brokerages apparently failed to obtain the best available stock price for customers -- and notified the agency's enforcement attorneys about two weeks ago, two people said, confirming a report Monday in The New York Times. They spoke on condition of anonymity. In an investigation described as preliminary, the SEC examiners also formally notified the firms of the problems, according to these people. They include Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab.
■ Display industry
LG moves into No. 2 spot
LG Electronics Inc of South Korea overtook Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co as the world's second-largest maker of plasma display panels during the third quarter, a researcher said. LG increased shipments in the three months ended Sept. 30 by 20 percent from the second quarter, to 192,892 panels, raising the Seoul-based company's market share to 21.5 percent from 19.6 percent, Displaybank said in an e-mailed statement. Matsushita, which sells products under the Panasonic brand, had an unchanged 21.1 percent market share after shipments rose 9.2 percent, the researcher said.
■ Insurance
Marsh ousts executives
Two top executives of scandal-tarred insurance firm Marsh Inc have been ousted, the company said, the latest casualties of an industry probe by New York's attorney general. Roger Egan, president and chief operating officer of Marsh, and Christopher Treanor, chairman and chief executive of the firm's global placement business, were "asked to step down from their positions" Monday, the company said. "These management decisions were difficult and were not based on any suggestion of culpability," Michael Cherkasky, president and CEO of the firm's parent company, Marsh & McLennan Cos, said in a written release. "However, at the end of the day, Mr. Egan and Mr. Treanor were accountable for the areas of the business that have been the focus of investigations ... and, therefore, we thought it was appropriate to make these changes."
■ Semiconductors
Infineon reports turnaround
German semiconductor company Infineon AG reported yesterday that it returned to the black in fiscal 2004 after three straight money-losing years amid a general recovery in the world chip market, but warned of a slowdown ahead. Infineon chief executive Wolfgang Ziebart said the company is "not satisfied" with the earnings, which came to 61 million euros (US$78.9 million) in the year ending Sept. 30. He cited costs from negative antitrust rulings for having cut into profits. The figure posed a nearly one-half billion euro turnaround after Infineon had lost 435 million euros in fiscal 2003. The final earnings figure came after Infineon managed a 44- million-euro profit in the last quarter through Sept. 30, falling far short of many analysts' forecasts of a fourth-quarter earnings of some 145 million euros.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
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