UNITED STATES
Biden latches onto S&P 500
US President Joe Biden touted the S&P 500 index’s record high as a sign of US economic strength, making a rare comment on the stock market after a tough week in his re-election bid that focused attention on his age and mental acuity. The S&P 500 topped 5,000 for the first time on Friday, spurred by big-tech stocks and speculation that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates soon. By contrast, Biden’s week included gaffes in which he mixed up the names of world leaders — and a special counsel’s report said the 81-year-old president showed “diminished faculties and faulty memory.”
ENERGY
Tax savings help ONGC
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), India’s largest oil and gas explorer, posted better-than-expected quarterly profit as lower windfall tax helped offset impact of the decline in oil and gas prices. Still, net income fell 14 percent to 95.4 billion rupees (US$1.1 billion) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 110.4 billion rupees a year-ago, according to an exchange filing on Saturday. Revenue fell 9.8 percent to 347.9 billion rupees, according to the state-owned explorer, which accounts for 67 percent of India’s oil and 54 percent its gas production.
ITALY
Bonds pitched in TV show
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan to shift the burden of Italy’s debt to her voters reached a new milestone when a pitch for government bond sales ran during the nation’s most iconic song contest. The advertisement, which appeared during a public TV broadcast from the annual Sanremo Music Festival on Friday night, promoted an issuance of the BTP Valore bond later this month as offering an “advantageous return exclusively dedicated to small savers.” Getting ordinary savers to buy debt, along with taking measures to avoid any worsening of public finances, are now key pillars of Rome’s strategy to stay sustainably afloat.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford working on cheap EVs
Ford Motor Co is working on inexpensive, small electric vehicles (EVs) to stem its electric vehicle losses and take on Tesla Inc and Chinese automakers. Chief executive officer Jim Farley revealed the plans to analysts on Tuesday after the automaker announced adjusted earnings per share of US$0.29 for the fourth quarter of last year, more than double the US$0.13 analysts expected on average. Fourth-quarter revenue of US$46 billion surpassed the US$40.3 billion analysts expected. The small team is being led by Alan Clarke, executive director of advanced EV development, who came to Ford two years ago after more than 12 years developing models for Tesla.
BANKING
Barclays to tamp fossil fuels
British bank Barclays PLC said on Friday it would stop directly financing its energy clients’ new oil and gas projects. As part of its updated climate strategy, the bank added it would scale back lending for existing fossil fuel projects as the sector faces intense pressure from activist investors to help tackle climate change. Additional curbs will be introduced on unconventional oil and gas, including extra heavy oil, Barclays said. The bank also expects “energy clients to produce transition plans or decarbonization strategies” by next year, it said, adding that it would require energy clients to commit to other targets, including the reduction of methane and carbon emissions from operations.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
BIG INVESTMENT: Hon Hai is building the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art AI chips, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said The construction of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) massive artificial intelligence (AI) server plant near Guadalajara, Mexico, would be completed in a year despite the threat of new tariffs from US President Donald Trump, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is investing about US$900 million in what would become the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art GB200 AI chips, Lemus said. The project consists of two phases: the expansion of an existing Hon Hai facility in the municipality of El Salto, and the construction of a
RSS