UNITED STATES
House prices bounce back
House prices rebounded strongly last month, suggesting underlying demand and a shortage of homes for sale are underpinning the market after a tax break on purchases was withdrawn. The 2.1 percent increase, the second-largest gain in 15 years, followed a 0.6 percent decline in July, when the tapering of a year-long stamp duty holiday landed buyers of more expensive homes with a significant tax bill. The annual pace of growth accelerated to 11 percent from 10.5 percent, the figures from Nationwide Building Society showed. The average house price stood at ￡248,857 (US$342,419) last month, an increase of almost ￡25,000 compared with a year earlier, Nationwide said.
GERMANY
Retail sales fall 5.1 percent
Retail sales fell by far more than expected in July after two months of sharp increases, data showed yesterday. The Federal Statistics Office said retail sales dropped 5.1 percent on the month in real terms after a revised jump of 4.5 percent in June and an increase of 4.6 percent in May. The July reading missed a Reuters forecast for a fall of 0.9 percent. The monthly comparison was distorted heavily by the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on shopping in most parts of the nation in June, the statistics office said. Retail sales edged down by 0.3 percent in real terms year-on-year, it added.
EL SALVADOR
Bitcoin fund approved
Congress on Tuesday approved a law to create a US$150 million fund to facilitate conversions from bitcoin to US dollars ahead of the Central American nation’s planned adoption of the cryptocurrency as legal tender next week. With 64 votes in favor and 14 votes against, Congress approved the fund as the nation prepares to officially adopt bitcoin on Tuesday next week. The Central American nation would be the first in the world to use the cryptocurrency as legal tender. Money for the new fund would be redirected from the Ministry of Finance’s budget and administered by State Development Bank of El Salvador, lawmakers said.
AIRLINES
SAS’ net loss narrows
Scandinavian airline SAS yesterday said that it sees encouraging signs of travel increasing, but it still faces “headwinds” from the COVID-19 pandemic as it reported a narrower net loss. The carrier reported a net loss of 1.36 billion Swedish kronor (US$157.6 million) for May to July, down from a net loss of 2.37 billion kronor for the same period the previous year. Revenue rose to 3.98 billion kronor, from 2.5 billion kronor a year earlier, the company said, driven mainly by increased demand, but the company noted that was still 70 percent below the same quarter of 2019, which was unaffected by COVID-19.
INTERNET
Google extends home work
Google is extending its voluntary return-to-office policy through January next year, chief executive Sundar Pichai said on Tuesday, citing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in many parts of the world. The rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is also making companies reconsider their mask mandates and vaccination policies. “Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions,” Pichai said in an e-mail to employees.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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