■SHIPPING
Eergreen staying in south
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Asia’s largest container shipper, last night denied a report that it would not renew a lease for a dock at Kaohsiung Port. The Chinese-language Commercial Times said yesterday that Evergreen was planning to follow Danish shipper AP Moeller-Maersk A/S, which earlier this month decided to stop leasing a dock in Kaohsiung a year earlier than scheduled. The report also said Evergreen might halt operations in Kaohsiung and instead launch services at a container wharf at Taipei Port, which is partly invested by the container shipping firm.
■STOCK EXCHANGES
Taiwan to host global meet
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) has won the right to host the 52nd World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) Annual Conference in 2012 to promote cooperation among regulated exchanges worldwide, a TWSE executive said on Friday. To boost its international profile, TWSE will invite leaders from 103 stock, futures and options exchanges around the world with connections to the WFE to attend the meeting, the executive said.
■CURRENCY
Japan to limit margin trade
Japan’s Financial Services Agency said it planned to limit foreign exchange margin trades to 25 times the amount of cash used for transactions by 2011. An initial limit of 50-to-1 will be set as early as next year and lowered to 25 the next year, the agency said on its Web site on Friday.
■HONG KONG
Economy to recover: official
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that the territory’s economy could recover this year, reversing a forecast of a 6.5 percent contraction. Hong Kong announced US$2.2 billion in tax cuts, fee waivers and spending to shield the public from a recession.
■TRADE
Guangdong trade plunges
Guangdong Province, a manufacturing hub heavily dependent on exports, reported an 18.1 percent year-on-year drop in foreign trade last month, China’s Xinhua News Agency said, citing the provincial statistics bureau. However, the total of US$47.14 billion represented a 5.2 percent rise from March, indicating signs of a recovery, Xinhua said. The province attracted US$1.64 billion in foreign direct investment, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, it said.
■TELECOMS
Judge rules against Qwest
A federal judge has approved a class-action settlement of Qwest shareholders’ claims against former executives of the telecommunications company. An order signed on Wednesday approves a US$45 million settlement of claims against former Qwest Communications International Inc CEO Joe Nacchio and former chief financial officer Robert Woodruff. The order makes effective an earlier US$400 million settlement with Qwest.
■NETWORKING
Cisco warns on earnings
US computer networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc said on Friday that earnings per share in the current quarter would be US$0.02 to US$0.03 lower owing to a tax-related charge. Cisco said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit changes the company’s tax treatment of certain stock option expenses before 2005. In the filing, Cisco said it would record a charge of US$130 million in the quarter.
The popular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) arbitrage trade might soon see a change in dynamics that could affect the trading of the US listing versus the local one. And for anyone who wants to monetize the elevated premium, Goldman Sachs Group Inc highlights potential trades. A note from the bank’s sales desk published on Friday said that demand for TSMC’s Taipei-traded stock could rise as Taiwan’s regulator is considering an amendment to local exchange-traded funds’ (ETFs) ownership. The changes, which could come in the first half of this year, could push up the current 30 percent single-stock weight limit
EARLY TALKS: Measures under consideration include convincing allies to match US curbs, further restricting exports of AI chips or GPUs, and blocking Chinese investments US President Donald Trump’s administration is sketching out tougher versions of US semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, an early indication the new US president plans to expand efforts that began under former US president Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess. Trump officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron Ltd and ASML Holding NV engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, people familiar with the matter said. The aim, which was also a priority for Biden, is to see key allies match China curbs the US
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
‘SACRED MOUNTAIN’: The chipmaker can form joint ventures abroad, except in China, but like other firms, it needs government approval for large investments Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) needs government permission for any overseas joint ventures (JVs), but there are no restrictions on making the most advanced chips overseas other than for China, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. US media have said that TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp, has been in talks for a stake in Intel Corp. Neither company has confirmed the talks, but US President Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of taking away the US’ semiconductor business and said he wants the industry back
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