■ OIL
Prices weaken in Asia
Oil prices weakened in Asian trade yesterday after initially spiking sharply in reaction to a fire that struck a pipeline linking the US to key energy supplier Canada, dealers said. With the pipeline partially resuming shipments after the blaze, traders are focusing on next week's OPEC output meeting in Abu Dhabi, they said. In afternoon trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month fell US$0.13 to US$90.88 a barrel from US$91.01 in late US trading on Thursday. Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month fell US$0.27 to US$89.95 a barrel.
■ FINANCE
Samsung Securities raided
State prosecutors raided the offices of a Samsung Group financial company on Friday, a company spokesman and media report said, amid a probe into allegations the conglomerate created a slush fund to bribe influential figures. Kim Jin-ho, a spokesman for Samsung Securities Co, said six prosecutors led the raid of the company's Seoul office and were backed by 40 other officials. The raid came after prosecutors earlier this month launched an investigation into allegations that Samsung, South Korea's biggest conglomerate, bribed prosecutors, judges and lawmakers using a 200 billion won (US$215 million) slush fund.
■ WTO
China-US spat resolved
China has agreed to eliminate a dozen tax breaks and other subsidies the US challenged this year at the WTO, resolving one of the series of trade spats between the countries. "This outcome represents a victory for US manufacturers and their workers," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Thursday. "The agreement also demonstrates that two great trading nations can work together to settle disputes to their mutual benefit," she said. China's decision will abolish tax breaks and other subsidies that benefit the broad spectrum of Chinese industries, including steel, wood products and information technology, Schwab said.
■ FINANCE
Morgan Stanley loses Cruz
Morgan Stanley said on Thursday that co-president Zoe Cruz, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, will leave in the latest investment bank management shakeup since the summer's credit turmoil. Robert Scully, who was named co-president along with Cruz last year, will remain at the firm in a new capacity. He will join a newly created office of the chairman, and will focus on Morgan Stanley's sovereign investors. Cruz had been with Morgan Stanley for the past 25 years, and rose to her current title after former chief executive Philip Purcell promoted her in a move to consolidate power.
■ RETAIL
Sears profits drop 99%
Sears Holdings Corp reported a 99 percent drop in third-quarter profit on Thursday on weak sales at Sears and Kmart stores and investment losses under hedge-fund manager chairman Eddie Lampert. It was the worst quarter since Lampert formed the company by combining Sears and Kmart in March 2005, heightening questions among investors about Lampert's strategy for reviving two faded chains. Sears shares tumbled US$16.09, or 13.8 percent, to US$100.25 in morning trading. Net income fell to US$2 million from US$196 million a year ago.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
FRAUD ISSUES: The app meets none of Taiwan’s 15 cybersecurity standards, and in the past year, about 1,706 fraud cases have been identified on it The Ministry of the Interior yesterday ordered Taiwanese Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known as RedNote in English) for a year, after detecting hundreds of instances of fraud on the platform. The ISPs have been instructed to block access to the app to its more than 3 million users in Taiwan, effective immediately, Deputy Minister of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) told a news conference at the National Police Agency’s Fraud Prevention Center. The order is being implemented via protocols governing domain name system (DNS) response policy zones, he said. Xiaohongshu meets none
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