TECHNOLOGY
Intel to cut Mobileye stake
Intel Corp plans to sell part of its holdings in Mobileye Global Inc, to raise about US$1.48 billion for its ambitious spending plans. The US company is offering 35 million shares with an option to sell a further 5.25 million shares of the Israeli automated driving technology maker, Mobileye said on Monday in a regulatory filing. Mobileye stock has more than doubled since its initial public offering in October last year. Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley are to underwrite the sale. Following the sale, Intel would retain about an 88 percent stake in Mobileye, which it bought in 2018 for US$15.3 billion.
CHINA
Deposit rates to shrink
Authorities have asked the nation’s biggest banks to lower their deposit rates for at least the second time in less than a year, people familiar with the matter said. Several state-owned lenders were last week advised to cut rates on a range of products, including on demand deposits by 5 basis points and three-year and five-year time deposits by at least 10 basis points, the people said. Banks are assessing the request and could adjust rates as early as this week, they said. Big lenders currently offer an annualized rate of 0.25 percent on demand deposits, and 2.6 percent and 2.65 percent on three-year and five-year time deposits respectively.
GERMANY
Industrial orders drop again
Industrial orders unexpectedly fell again in April following a sharp drop the month before, official data showed yesterday, adding to concerns about the health of Europe’s biggest economy. New orders, closely watched as a foretaste of future industrial activity, declined 0.4 percent in April from a month earlier, federal statistics agency Destatis said. The drop comes after orders plummeted 10.9 percent in March, the biggest decline since April 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread lockdowns.
JAPAN
Real wage slide continues
Workers’ real wages continued to fall in April, even after reflecting some of the gains from a solid win in annual pay negotiations, creating a headache for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as he considers calling an election. Real cash earnings for workers dropped 3 percent from a year earlier in April, slipping for the 13th month, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported yesterday. Nominal cash earnings increased 1 percent from the previous year, it said. A separate report showed that households cut spending in April, an indication that higher prices are sapping consumers’ spending appetite. Household outlays fell 4.4 percent from a year earlier, it said.
GAMING
Microsoft to settle charges
Microsoft Corp is to pay US$20 million to settle government charges that it collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, officials said on Monday. The US Federal Trade Commission alleged that from 2015 to 2020 Microsoft collected personal data from children under the age of 13 who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without their parents’ permission and retained the information. The decision still needs the approval of a federal court before it can be implemented. A spokesperson for Microsoft said that Xbox would develop an identity and age validation process to deliver age-appropriate experiences.
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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