NEW ZEALAND
Firms offer negative outlook
Local companies are pessimistic about the outlook for the economy, and their own trading prospects, as slowing growth damps demand for their goods and services. A net 59 percent of firms expect the economy would worsen, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research said yesterday, citing its second quarter survey of business opinion. A net 13 percent said their own trading had slowed in the period, and 17 percent expect a deterioration in the three months through September. Meanwhile, a net 10 percent of firms reported trouble finding unskilled workers, down from 37 percent in the first quarter.
RETAILERS
Sainsbury posts higher sales
J Sainsbury PLC reported higher sales and said that food inflation is starting to fall, suggesting that the cost-of-living crisis could start to ease for UK shoppers. Retail revenue gained 9.8 percent on a like-for-like basis at Britain’s second-biggest supermarket in its first quarter. Sainsbury has spent more than ￡60 million (US$76.22 million) on lowering prices since March, covering more than 120 basic items like toilet paper, bread and milk. “Food inflation is starting to fall and we are fully committed to passing on savings to our customers,” Sainsbury chief executive officer Simon Roberts said in the statement.
AIRLINES
SpiceJet faces disruptions
Passengers on cash-strapped SpiceJet Ltd are experiencing the most flight disruptions in India, the world’s fastest-growing aviation market. With the busy summer travel season arriving, only 61 percent of SpiceJet’s flights departed on time from the country’s four biggest airports — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — in May, the Indian Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said. That is down from the already trailing figure of nearly 70 percent in April, the agency’s data showed. Air India Ltd slid to fifth from second in the punctuality ranks, with almost twice as many flight delays in May as a month earlier, while Akasa Air was the most on-time, though its performance also slipped.
INTERNET
Yahoo eyes public return
Yahoo Inc plans to return to public markets, chief executive officer Jim Lanzone told the Financial Times in an interview. The Internet media firm still ranks in the global top five in traffic terms and would be aggressive in pursuing merger and acquisition opportunities, Lanzone said. The company, owned by Apollo Global Management Inc, has had to navigate a challenging time for online spending as advertisers try to gauge skittish consumer sentiment. It is “ready financially, the company has a great balance sheet, we’re very profitable,” Lanzone told the Financial Times. Apollo bought Yahoo in 2021.
CANDY
Wrigley settles lawsuit
Wrigley Co, the maker of multicolored fruit-flavored Skittles candies, has settled a lawsuit accusing a seller of cannabis-related merchandise of trademark infringement for marketing products under the “Zkittlez” name. Under a proposed permanent injunction filed on Monday in a Chicago federal court, Terphogz LLC agreed not to use Skittles, Zkittlez or similar terms for cannabis-related sales. It would also stop using slogans such as “Taste the Z Train” and “Taste the Strain Bro,” which Wrigley found too similar to Skittles’ longtime slogan “Taste the Rainbow.” It also agreed to give up the domain name zkittlez.com. Wrigley is a Chicago-based unit of privately held Mars Wrigley Confectionary.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
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