JAPAN
Nikkei up 102% from 2020
The Nikkei 225 has doubled since its COVID-19 pandemic low as investors continue to rush into one of this year’s biggest stock rallies. The blue-chip equity gauge yesterday rose 1.5 percent, taking the gain from its March 2020 low to 102 percent. That is the best in the Asia-Pacific region in that span, after the more than 120 percent surge in India’s SENSEX. Stocks have soared in Tokyo this year on drivers including signs of stable inflation, corporate governance reforms and an inflow of foreign investment. These have supplemented tailwinds from the Bank of Japan’s easy-money policy and benefits from a weak yen for the nation’s exporters.
UNITED KINGDOM
GDP up after March drop
The economy bounced back in April as robust growth in the retail and creative industries sectors offset a slowdown in construction and manufacturing. GDP rose 0.2 percent after a 0.3 percent decline in March, when heavy rains and strikes kept consumers at home, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. The figures left the economy 0.3 percent bigger than before COVID-19 hit in 2020. The positive start to the second quarter reduces the risk of recession for now. However, bets that the Bank of England keeps raising interest rates through the summer to tame inflation are adding to the prospect of a downturn later in the year.
ENERGY
Oil demand peak in sight
Global oil demand could peak before the end of this decade as the energy crisis has accelerated the transition to cleaner technologies, the International Energy Agency said yesterday. The Paris-based agency forecast that annual demand growth would slow sharply over the next five years, from 2.4 million barrels per day this year to 400,000 barrels per day in 2028. “The shift to a clean energy economy is picking up pace, with a peak in global oil demand in sight before the end of this decade,” International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Samsung adds to staff leave
Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s biggest memorychip maker, is giving staff in South Korea one Friday off each month in a bid to retain talent that increasingly values flexible work. Starting next week, non-factory, full-time staff can take the day off in the period they get paychecks — usually the week of the 21st, a company spokesperson said yesterday. The arrangements are aimed at retaining talent, particularly among younger workers who value work-life balance. Millenials and Generation Z make up about three-quarters of Samsung’s workforce globally, a company report said last year.
GAMING
Judge blocks Microsoft deal
Microsoft Corp’s planned US$69 billion purchase of video game company Activision Blizzard Inc was blocked by a federal judge on Tuesday, giving more time for an antitrust review of the deal. US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco ruled in support of a temporary restraining order sought by the US Federal Trade Commission that would stop Microsoft from closing the deal. The judge said her order temporarily blocking the deal “is necessary to maintain the status quo” while the commission’s legal cases against it are still pending.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the