■UNITED STATES
Securities holdings slump
US portfolio holdings of foreign securities slumped more than 40 percent to nearly US$4.3 trillion last year amid the financial crisis, the Treasury Department said on Monday. The holdings were trimmed to US$4.291 trillion by Dec. 31 from US$7.212 trillion a year earlier, a preliminary annual report said. The holdings at the end of last year comprised US$2.7 trillion in foreign equities, US$1.3 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities and US$300 billion in foreign short-term debt securities, the report showed. The report from a year earlier measured the US$7.2 trillion US holdings as consisting of US$5.2 trillion in foreign equities, US$1.6 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities and US$400 billion in foreign short-term debt securities.
■FINANCE
Citigroup sells card assets
Citigroup Inc said on Monday that it sold US$1.3 billion in credit card assets as the bank reorganizes itself in the wake of government bailouts. The New York-based bank said it sold its entire ownership interest in three North American partner credit card portfolios representing about US$1.3 billion in managed assets. Terms of the deals and the acquirer weren’t disclosed. The portfolios were part of Citi Holdings, one of the company’s units that it split off earlier in the year. That unit holds the holds the company’s riskier assets and tougher-to-manage ventures, while Citicorp is focused on traditional banking around the world.
■MEDIA
Vivendi profit slides 2.8%
Vivendi SA said yesterday its net profit slipped 2.8 percent in the first half as the economic slowdown hit earnings at its core music and mobile telecommunications businesses. Paris-based Vivendi, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies with holdings ranging from Universal Music Group to the Canal Plus pay TV service, said net profit in the six months ending June 30 was 1.19 billion euros (US$1.7 billion), down from 1.22 billion euros a year earlier. In a statement, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said the company was “successfully weathering the current economic slowdown,” which is having “a real but limited impact.”
■INTERNET
Icahn sells Yahoo shares
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold 12.7 million shares in Yahoo, cutting his stake in the company a month after it formed an Internet search partnership with software giant Microsoft. Icahn, a member of Yahoo’s board and one of its largest shareholders, sold the shares during the last three trading days on Wall Street, an exchange filing on Monday said. Icahn sold the shares at prices between US$14.74 and US$14.92. Icahn and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠) were involved in a dispute last year when Yang rejected a US$47 billion takeover bid by Microsoft for the company he founded with a Stanford University classmate in 1995.
■OIL
Petrobras to control fields
Brazil unveiled plans on Monday to boost state control of recently discovered offshore oil fields by giving its oil company, Petrobras, sole operating rights and a minimum 30 percent stake in any joint ventures. The leading role for Petrobras is part of an overhaul of rules for the vast, untapped subsalt fields, superseding a concession system that already applies elsewhere in the country. Brazil believes the oil finds could turn it into one of the world’s top 10 oil exporting nations.
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well
TECHNICAL LEAD: The US needs to boost its missile technology and build a communications network able to withstand hackers, Admiral Samuel Paparo said US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said the US is confident it could defeat China in the Pacific, but that technical advantage is shrinking, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum on Saturday, Paparo said the US needs to maintain its technical lead over China by enhancing missile technology and building a communications network able to withstand hackers, the paper reported. Although the US is able to hit long-distance and difficult targets with its advanced cruise missile system, each launch costs more than US$1 million, he said. By contrast, drones, which are relatively cheap to build and develop, can
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
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