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.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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