■ MACROECONOMICS
US confidence drops
US consumer confidence fell to an all-time low as worries about jobs, energy bills and home foreclosures darkened people's feelings about the country's economic health and their own financial well-being. According to the RBC Cash Index, confidence tumbled to a mark of 56.3 early this month. That compares with a reading of 65.9 last month -- and a benchmark of 100 -- and was the worst since the index began in 2002. The RBC consumer confidence index was based on responses from 1,027 adults surveyed from Monday through Wednesday about their attitudes on personal finance and the economy.
■ MUSIC
Sony BMG relents on DRM
Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the last major music label holding out against selling music online without copy protection, relented on Thursday and announced Amazon.com Inc's digital music store will carry songs by its artists. Until this week, Sony BMG had resisted selling songs from its catalog without embedding Digital Rights Management (DRM) coding, which prevented them from being copied. Amazon's digital music store sells songs only in the MP3 format, which can be burned onto CDs, copied to multiple PCs and played on any number of digital media players, including Apple Inc's iPod and Microsoft Corp's Zune.
■ AVIATION
Growth may lead to curbs
China's civil aviation traffic soared 16 percent to 185 million passengers last year, triggering government plans for curbs on industry growth to ensure safety, state media reported yesterday. The booming sector was growing too fast, raising safety risks, and needs to be brought under control, the China Daily newspaper quoted state aviation chief Li Jiaxiang (李家祥) as saying. The risks looked set to rise, with volume projected to surge another 14 percent this year to 210 million passengers, the paper said, citing figures from the General Administration of Civil Aviation.
■ ENGINEERING
Report boosts JFE and IHI
Shares in Japanese engineering companies JFE Holdings Inc and IHI Corp rose sharply yesterday on a newspaper report that said the two will merge some of their operations to create Japan's largest shipbuilder. The companies separately issued statements saying they had made no decisions on any restructuring of their shipbuilding operations. The Nikkei said that based on fiscal 2007 sales projections, a combination of the two would have sales of ¥345 billion (US$3.1 billion) a year.
■ SECURITIES
Merrill losses bigger: report
Merrill Lynch & Co, the US' third-largest securities firm, may write down US$15 billion related to US mortgage losses, almost twice its original forecast, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the plan. Analysts had estimated the New York-based firm would announce a markdown of about US$12 billion when it reports fourth-quarter earnings next week, adding to an US$8.4 billion charge in the previous quarter. Citigroup, the biggest US bank, may post about US$14 billion of writedowns when it reports fourth-quarter earnings next week, JPMorgan Chase & Co analysts estimated yesterday. Bank of America Corp may announce writedowns linked to collateralized debt obligations of about US$5 billion, they said.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from