World

TAIPEI: Nobody wants to see a war over Taiwan because nobody wants to disrupt the crucial global supply chain of semiconductors, the chairman of major chipmaker TSMC said on Thursday (Jul 15), in unusually direct comments about geopolitics. Tensions over the past year or so have risen around Taiwan as China seeks to assert its sovereignty claims, with repeated military drills near the island that have caused concern in Washington and other Western capitals. Mark Liu, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's chairman, told an earnings call that the COVID-19 pandemic has already been disruptive enough for the global economy and no country wants to see instability around Taiwan. "As to an invasion by China, let me tell you everybody wants to have a peaceful Taiwan Strait. Because it is ...

In September, Hayden officially registered his business as a Limited Liability Company, or LLC, called MH Book Store . He is now a 16-year-old CEO. After accounting for costs like shipping and the products' original retail prices, Max says he turned a total profit for the year of "roughly $110,000 for myself." And, when you take into account some of the other online marketplaces where he sold items, like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, Hayden pulled in more than $2 million in revenue last year reselling popular items. Hayden ramped up his side-hustle of reselling items on Amazon and other online marketplaces in 2020 to the tune of six-figure profits. In fact, by specifically targeting products he knew would be in high demand and short supply at different points of the pandemic — fr...

Global investors took shelter in safer money market and bond funds in the week to Aug. 4, as the rapidly spreading Delta variant of COVID-19 dampened hopes for a faster recovery from the pandemic, with some economic data already showing signs of a slowdown. Data from Lipper showed global money market funds attracted inflows of US$36.68 billion, the most in 10 weeks. Global bond funds received US$14.6 billion in the week, twice the inflows in the previous week. Graphic: Fund flows into global equities bonds and money markets - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xmvjogwnqpr/Fundper cent20flowsper cent20intoper cent20globalper cent20equitiesper cent20bondsper cent20andper cent20moneyper cent20markets.jpg Bond prices rallied across the world, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield tou...

MOUNTING ANTI-GOVERNMENT SENTIMENT This year, however, the anti-government demonstrations have gained more momentum. The government’s failure to control the COVID-19 pandemic has stirred up anger among other activist groups. These groups have joined forces with youth organisations against the government. One of the activist groups is the Thai Mai Thon (Impatient Thais) group, led by former Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan. Earlier in July, another group led by Red Shirt activist Sombat Boonngam-anong staged a car mob, where a hundred vehicles took to the streets to pressure political parties to withdraw from the pro-Prayut coalition. They demanded that a non-parliamentarian replace Prayut under Section 272 of the Constitution, which stipulates that two-thirds of members of both Houses...

TOKYO: Japan's economy likely recovered slightly in the second quarter from a steep slump at the start of the year, a Reuters poll showed, as solid exports and capital expenditure cushioned some of the blow to consumption from the coronavirus pandemic. But analysts expect the world's third-largest economy to lag other advanced nations emerging from the doldrums, as expanded state of emergency curbs and a resurgence in infections weigh on household spending. "There won't be much of a rebound from the first quarter's big contraction. The data will show the economy continues to stagnate," said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. "Conditions won't improve much in July-September, as expanded COVID-19 curbs and surging infections hurt consumption during the su...

Novavax on Thursday (Aug 5) again delayed its timeline for seeking US authorisation for its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, and the company now expects to file for its emergency use in the fourth quarter of 2021. It had previously said it would seek emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration in the third quarter. Novavax shares dropped 8.5 per cent in after-hours trading. "It's a matter of getting validation work done" to demonstrate consistency in the vaccine's manufacturing process to the FDA, said Chief Executive Officer Stanley Erck, adding that other countries' regulators have been more aggressive in moving Novavax's vaccine through the authorisation process. Despite promising clinical data, the Maryland-based company has lagged rival vaccine makers such...

BRISBANE: Recent Olympics have been wracked by controversy, cost blowouts and COVID-19 chaos, but the residents of Brisbane, strongly tipped to host the 2032 Games, look ready to welcome the event with open arms. The sun-drenched Australian city appears all but certain to be anointed 2032 hosts on Wednesday (Jul 21) when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) holds a vote in Tokyo ahead of the delayed 2020 Games. In other cities, a bid to host an event of such magnitude might prompt demonstrations, or at the very least vigorous public debate. Yet, residents of Brisbane have greeted the news with enthusiasm. "The city is gorgeous, the people are beautiful. And it would be lovely to get something like this happening in the city," Marium Ammar, who moved to Brisbane from Pakistan seven ...

SINGAPORE: Thirteen people have been fined S$3,000 to S$53,500 for selling electronic vaporisers and related components online in Singapore, said the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) on Wednesday (Jul 28). The perpetrators, aged 20 to 40, were convicted in court between March and June 2021, with the total fines amounting to S$164,500. Of the 13, two were also jailed 33 months and 13 weeks each for separate offences. "They had purchased the e-vaporisers and related components from overseas suppliers and sold them illegally on various local social media and e-commerce platforms," said HSA in a press release. More than S$20,000 worth of e-vaporiser products have been seized. The authority conducts "active surveillance" on such platforms and will take "enforcement actions" against those who...

In this article AMZN MSFT FB AAPL If you are an Apple shareholder who wondered after last week's stellar earnings report why the value of your stock holding was going down rather than up, the reason given — that chip shortages will weigh on the short-term outlook — may not seem good enough. For a trader looking at every short-term opportunity to move portfolio money to where the next quick buck is likely to be, it doesn't take more than that "sell on the news" headline. Longer-term investors, though, might want to consider a recent fact about the company and negative headlines: Apple has overcome pretty much every short-term "sell" headline in recent years on its way to being a $2-trillion-plus company. Trump's trade war with China? No problem. The surprise decision to stop offering iP...

"LOW BASE" The strong growth in the second quarter was largely due to the "low base" in the same period last year when GDP fell by 13.3 per cent due to the COVID-19 "circuit breaker" and a sharp drop in external demand brought on by the pandemic, said MTI. Taking into account the GDP performance in the first quarter of 2021, the Singapore economy expanded by 7.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first half of 2021. Sharp improvements across all clusters in the manufacturing sector supported the overall expansion in the April to June period. The sector, as a whole, grew 17.7 per cent year-on-year, with the transport and precision engineering clusters seeing the largest increases in output. The constructor sector, led by an expansion of public and private projects, was also a big g...