BANKING
Central banks cut Fed swaps
From Monday next week, the world’s top central banks will reduce the frequency of their US dollar operations with the US Federal Reserve after volatility in financial markets receded, the banks said in a joint statement yesterday. The European Central Bank (ECB) the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank have been conducting daily US dollar swaps with the Fed for the past month, but will revert to weekly tenders, given improvements in US dollar funding conditions, they said. The daily tenders were made available after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the sale of Credit Suisse sent jitters across financial markets, raising the risk of liquidity shortages in case confidence falls further. However, the facility was barely used and the takeup was at or near zero on most days since the facility was announced on March 19. “These central banks stand ready to re-adjust the provision of US dollar liquidity as warranted by market conditions,” the ECB said in a statement.
FOOD
Price hikes lift Nestle sales
Nestle SA’s sales growth unexpectedly accelerated, bolstered by Purina and Friskies petfood and as the maker of Nescafe coffee raised prices further. Sales rose 9.3 percent on an organic basis in the first quarter, Nestle said yesterday. Demand was more resilient than expected, as the maker of KitKat bars kept boosting prices near the highest rate in decades. Nestle said pet owners helped drive an increase of 16 percent in petcare revenue. The next biggest gains were in confectionery and coffee, it said. Despite very strong headline numbers, individual units betrayed some weaknesses: Sales declined at Nespresso and Nestle’s vitamins, supplements and minerals business. Capacity constrains also weighed on the water brand Perrier, the company said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Novartis raises profit outlook
Parmaceutical giant Novartis AG yesterday said it was increasing its full-year sales and profits outlook after strong earnings in the first quarter on the back of a handful of new drugs. The Swiss drugmaker said that its medicines for heart disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis had buoyed earnings in the quarter. The group reported a 3 percent increase in net profit in the first quarter to nearly US$2.3 billion, while sales also rose 3 percent compared with the previous three months to almost US$13 billion. Novartis said that its operating profit would likely increase in the high single-digits this year on the back of strong momentum at the start of the year, while group sales are expected to grow in mid-single digits.
INDUSTRIALS
ABB raises sales forecast
ABB Ltd yesterday raised its guidance for the year after a surge of new orders added to its backlog and higher prices drove better-than-expected results. The Swiss industrial manufacturer now expects comparable revenue to increase more than 10 percent this year, after estimating about 5 percent in February, it said in a statement. New customer orders reached US$9.5 billion in the first quarter, an increase of 1 percent from a year earlier and exceeding an average analyst estimate of US$8.3 billion, it said. ABB added that it plans to delist its American depositary receipts from the New York Stock Exchange, saying it is no longer necessary that investors can trade digitally on multiple platforms. The delisting is expected to take effect on or around May 23.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
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