■BANKING
FSA censures Citigroup
Citigroup Inc was ordered to suspend some operations in Japan for a month, the nation’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) said. The US bank had inadequate internal controls, the regulator said. Meanwhile, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co is in the final stages of talks to buy Citigroup’s Nikko Asset Management Co for more than US$1 billion, the Nikkei reported yesterday. The two companies aim to reach a deal next week, the business daily reported in its evening edition, without naming its sources.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hummer deal unlikely
China’s planning agency is likely to reject a Chinese company’s bid to acquire General Motors Corp’s Hummer unit, in part because its gas-guzzling vehicles conflict with Beijing’s conservation goals, state radio reported. The National Development and Reform Commission is also likely to say Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp (四川騰中重工機械), a maker of construction machinery, lacks expertise to run Hummer, China National Radio said late on Thursday. It cited no source.
■COMPUTING
PC shipments to rise
Gartner Inc analysts are predicting this holiday season will be sweeter than last year’s for the personal computer industry. The technology research group predicts some growth in PC shipments in the final three months of this year, though it did not say how much. PC shipments dropped about 7 percent in the first quarter and Gartner says it expects 10 percent declines from last year’s levels in the next two quarters. For next year, Gartner forecasts PC shipments will rise about 10 percent from this year.
■FRANCE
Confidence edges up
French consumer confidence edged up again this month, but still remains weak, official data showed yesterday. The INSEE statistics body said its consumer confidence index for households rose to minus 37 points this month from minus 40 points in May. The index hit a record low of minus 48 points in July last year. This month, French households were more positive about the outlook on their finances, with this index rising sharply to minus 13 points from minus 23 points in May.
■SOUTH KOREA
Another surplus logged
South Korea logged a current account surplus for the fourth straight month last month as imports fell faster than exports during the ongoing global economic slump, the central Bank of Korea said yesterday. The current account surplus stood at US$3.63 billion in May, compared with US$4.25 billion a month earlier. For the first five months, the accumulated current account surplus amounted to US$16.46 billion.
■UNITED STATES
Swap deals extended
The US Federal Reserve said on Thursday it was extending US dollar swap deals with 13 central banks into next year following a review of liquidity programs aimed at promoting “financial stability.” The deals were clinched beginning last year as the Fed and other key central banks moved to boost lending and unblock the global credit squeeze. The extension of the US dollar swap arrangements through Feb. 1 applies to the central banks of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the UK, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the European Central Bank.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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