■ Interest Rates
Japan to slowly hike rates
The Bank of Japan will raise interest rates gradually while carefully looking at economic growth and price fluctuations, the central bank's deputy governor said yesterday. "The market's focus now seems to be the timing of the next rate hike, but I can only say that we will conduct monetary policy by carefully examining economic and price moves," deputy governor Toshiro Muto told economists and business executives at a seminar. Last Friday, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time in six years, lifting a key overnight rate from zero to 0.25 percent.
■ Semiconductors
AMD posts sharp profit rise
Advanced Micro Devices Inc reported a massive increase in second quarter profits on Thursday as it continued to make inroads into the world's leading computer chip maker, Intel Corp, which a day earlier posted its biggest profit drop in four years. Sunnyvale, California-based AMD said profits jumped to US$88.8 million, from US$11.3 million in the second quarter of last year. But revenue was stagnant for the quarter, dipping slightly to US$1.21 billion from US$1.26 billion a year earlier. Recent market share gains by AMD prompted Intel to shake up its management on Thursday, announcing a series of division head changes.
■ Semiconductors
Infineon's losses shrink
German memory chip maker Infineon said yesterday it had narrowed its net loss in the three months to the end of June to 23 million euros (US$29 million) compared with a US$302.6 million loss a year ago, but the company's results still fell short of analyst expectations. The company cited costs associated with the spin-off of its Qimonda AG computer chip business and with what it called valuation allowances of tax assets. Sales rose to US$2.48 billion from US$2.03 billion a year ago. Computer memory maker Qimonda, which is being readied for a separate listing, made US$126 million, compared with a loss of US$171.5 million a year ago, the company said.
■ Automobiles
Ford's earnings disappoint
Ford Motor Co dashed Wall Street's hopes for a profitable second quarter on Thursday, blaming its dependence on high-margin sports utility vehicles for a US$123 million loss as consumers shifted toward gas-sipping cars. The company's loss of US$0.07 per share for the April-June period contrasted with a profit of US$946 million, or US$0.47 per share, in the second quarter of last year. Revenue fell 6 percent to US$41.97 billion from US$44.55 billion. For the first half of the year, Ford lost US$1.3 billion, or US$0.70 a share, in contrast to a profit of US$2.16 billion, or US$1.05 a share, a year ago. Six-month revenue fell to US$83 billion from US$89.7 billion a year ago.
■ Automobiles
Ghosn downplays GM talks
The chief executive of Renault and Nissan said yesterday that the initial 90-day talks with General Motors about a possible partnership will be about advantages in working together, but won't address the possibility of holding capital stakes. "We are not making the capital investment inside General Motors as the first element or condition," Carlos Ghosn told reporters at Nissan Motor Co's headquarters in Tokyo. The initial talks are merely looking at whether the idea of a tie-up with GM makes sense, he said.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
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