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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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