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☆ Asia equities fall on fear of hawkish central bank hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Selena Li | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"It concerns the market that central banks will have to hike rates a lot more to curb inflation," said Kerry Craig, JPMorgan Asset Management's global market strategist. New Zealand's central bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points to a more than 14-year high of 4.75% on Wednesday. read moreThe central bank said it expected to keep tightening further to ensure inflation returned to its target range over the medium term. Japan's Nikkei share index (.N225) fell 1.25% on Wednesday following a Tuesday PMI report showing the factory sector had contracted. The dollar index fell 0.077%, but analyst expect interest rate rises to lift the dollar, hurting emerging market equities, which benefited from a falling dollar.

☆ Toyota to accept full union demand for wage hike for 3rd straight year - Asahi
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), the world's biggest automaker, will accept a union demand in full for a rise in wages and bonus payments for a third consecutive year, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday. Toyota will disclose its decision at the first round of wage negotiations scheduled on Wednesday, the paper said. As one of the country's biggest employers, Toyota has long served as a bellwether of the spring labour talks. Toyota's labour union has said that this time it is seeking a base salary increase that would be "the highest level in the past 20 years". The Asahi said it was also seeking one-off bonus payments worth 6.7 months of wages.

☆ FTX Japan to allow asset withdrawals starting Tuesday
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The Japanese unit of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said on Monday it would allow customers to withdraw deposits of fiat currency and crypto assets beginning Tuesday after months of suspension. FTX Japan said its customers could withdraw assets through the website of Liquid Japan, a crypto exchange it bought in February last year. FTX filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in November. Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Microsoft President Brad Smith told a news conference on Tuesday he was now more optimistic of getting the Activision acquisition done after the Nvidia deal and a similar arrangement with Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.T). Instead, Nvidia's 25 million customers will need to pay Nvidia for access to its cloud gaming platform and pay Microsoft for its games. Shares of Microsoft fell 2%, Nvidia dropped 3.4% and Activision fell 0.7% in a broadly lower market on Tuesday afternoon. Nvidia said it now supports the Xbox maker's bid to purchase Activision, but the deal could still be a hard sell with regulators. Smith said he hoped that rival Sony Group Corp (6758.T) will consider doing the same type of deal with Nvidia.

☆ Japan manufacturers gloomy as global slowdown hurts - Reuters Tankan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The monthly Reuters Tankan, which closely tracks the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) key tankan quarterly survey, found the sentiment index for big manufacturers stood at -5 in February, little changed from the prior month's -6. The survey asks respondents whether the business situation is good, not so good or bad. "We have not been able to transfer rising costs of materials, gas and electricity to our customers. On top of that, wages are rising, all of which squeezes the business environment," a manager of a metal processing firm wrote in the survey. Japan's economy averted recession in the fourth quarter but rebounded much less than expected as business investment slumped.

☆ Disasters lower outlook for New Zealand interest rate rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Lucy Craymer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Then on Feb. 12 to 15 a cyclone hit the North Island, which includes Auckland. When Cyclone Gabrielle hit, picking had just begun on pip-fruit farms, whose production is worth about NZ$1 billion a year. That would normally be a reason for a central bank to lift interest rates further, but some economists expect the RBNZ to look past the sudden rise as being temporary. Still, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said the central bank should pause hikes until the effect of the cyclone can be understood. After the Christchurch earthquake, the central bank cut its policy rate due to concerns about the economy.

☆ Leiji Matsumoto, creator of 'Space Battleship Yamato', dies aged 85
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Leiji Matsumoto, the Japanese manga and anime author known internationally as a creator of the 1970s TV series "Space Battleship Yamato", has died aged 85, his office said on Monday. Matsumoto gained global fame as director of the series, which was titled "Star Blazers" in the United States. Other well-known works include the manga series "Galaxy Express 999", which was also turned into a popular anime series. Matsumoto, who started drawing at the age of six, died of heart failure on Feb. 13 in Tokyo, Japanese media reported. Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Taiwan Jan export orders fall more slowly, downside risks remain
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Faith Hung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The island's export orders, a bellwether for global technology demand, had been 19.3% lower than a year before at $47.51 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday. While semiconductor demand driven by new technologies would help orders in the traditional low season in the first quarter, "the downside risks of the global economy are still high, which may affect the performance of export orders", the ministry said. The ministry added that it expected export orders this month to be lower than in February 2022 by between 6.9% and 10.8%. Taiwan's January orders from China were 45.9% lower than a year earlier, versus the annual fall of 37.7% seen in December. Export orders from Europe rose 18.3%, versus December's annual fall of 23.9%.

☆ Jadeja leads Australia's rout, India take 2-0 series lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Amlan Chakraborty | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jadeja claimed a career-best 7-42 as he and Ravichandran Ashwin (3-59) routed Australia for a paltry 113 in their second innings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Skipper Rohit Sharma made 31 and Cheteshwar Pujara, who made 31 not out, scored the winning run in his 100th test. Earlier, resuming on a promising 61-1, Australia added 52 runs before Jadeja and Ashwin engineered a spectacular collapse. Once Jadeja sent back Marnus Labuschagne (35), the wheels came off Australia's innings with nine of the 11 batsmen posting single digit scores. Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Michael Perry and Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Hedge funds' short-covering of tech bets is 2nd biggest in a decade - banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Carolina Mandl | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"The short covering in U.S. tech stocks from Jan 31st to Feb 15th is the second largest in magnitude over any 12-day period in the past decade," Goldman Sachs wrote in a note reviewed by Reuters. JPMorgan also said in a daily note to clients that communication services and information technology stocks had led the short covering in its books on Thursday. Overall, JPMorgan said multi-strategy and equity quantitative hedge funds had led the short covering, while equity long-short funds had been ahead in bets against stocks. Amid stock rises in February, hedge funds were forced to unwind their bets against the shares. read moreReporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Startup Unisers raises funds for defect-detecting tools in chipmaking
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. So detecting particles soon after they contaminate wafers saves money. "We are the only company which can detect these extremely small, small, smaller than 10 nanometer particles on wafer," Altun told Reuters. The technology in the new machines is the first product from Unisers. The technology of Unisers is also aimed at detecting impurities in materials, another source of defects.

☆ Japan logs record merchandise trade deficit in Jan as export growth slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Jan merchandise exports +3.5% yr/yr vs forecast +0.8%Imports +17.8% yr/yr vs forecast +18.4%Trade deficit at record Y3.49 trln vs forecast Y3.87 trillionCommodity inflation peaking but trade deficit to linger -analystTOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Growth in Japan's merchandise exports slowed sharply in January amid weakening Chinese demand for cars and chipmaking machinery, stoking concern about a global slowdown and creating the country's largest trade deficit on record. Trade figures issued on Thursday followed weaker-than-expected gross domestic product data, underscoring the challenge for the Bank of Japan in achieving growth led by private demand while stably sustaining inflation above 2%. The result was a 3.49 trillion yen ($26.07 billion) deficit in merchandise trade in January, the biggest in records going back to 1979, the data showed. Data issued on Monday showed Japan's economy, the world's third largest, had grown at an annualised rate of only 0.6 in the fourth quarter as business investment slumped. Japan reports trade in services separately, in its current account data.

☆ Stocks shrug off rates risk as U.S. consumers spend
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Equities - with the Nasdaq (.IXIC) up 15% so far this year - are clinging to the positives, while in interest rate markets investors are quickly ditching hopes for cuts later in 2023. Two-year Treasury yields , which also track short-term interest rate expectations, hit their highest since November at 4.703% overnight. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%. Elsewhere the repricing of the interest rates outlook is putting an end to a couple months of selling of the dollar in currency markets. The U.S. dollar index is eying a third weekly gain in a row - the longest streak since September, when the index was galloping towards a 20-year high.

☆ Australian central bank governor warns against failing to contain inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The head of Australia's central bank on Wednesday warned of dire consequences of not containing inflation, which is running at three-decade highs. Appearing before members of parliament, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said one risk was that the bank might not have done enough on interest rates. "Raising interest rates has always been unpopular ... but our job is to make sure inflation comes down and hopefully preserve the gains of employment that we have made." It's corrosive, it hurts people, it damages income inequality and it if stays high it leads to higher interest rates and more unemployment." Since the central bank began raising interest rates last year, its policy rate has already risen 325 basis points to a decade high of 3.35%.

☆ Most Americans think college admissions should not consider race -Reuters/Ipsos poll
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Gabriella Borter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sixty-seven percent of white respondents said they were against considering race at all in admissions, compared with 52% of minority respondents. In the Reuters/Ipsos survey, 46% of respondents said social policies such as affirmative action discriminated unfairly against white people. That view was held by 49% of white respondents and 39% of minority respondents. While most poll respondents said they did not think college admissions offices should consider race at all, 58% of all respondents said they supported programs aimed at increasing racial diversity of students on college campuses. Respondents also were asked how significantly other factors ought to play into college admissions.

☆ Wall Street watchdog set to adopt rules aimed at GameStop-type risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Douglas Gillison | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also due to vote on whether to propose changing rules protecting client assets held by investment managers. Trade groups have broadly welcomed the commission's proposal to cut the so-called settlement cycle to a single business day from two, six years after an earlier SEC rule shortened the period from three days. GameStop's share price tanked after its earlier volatility resulted in a multi-billion-dollar margin call on trading platform operators such as Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O). A shorter settlement cycle should see fewer defaults and thus help cut margin deposit costs, thereby reducing the chances of such a scenario recurring, according to the SEC. Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Megan Davies and Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ T-Mobile outage hits users across the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 13 (Reuters) - T-Mobile (TMUS.O) users across the United States reported network outages late on Monday, according to an outage tracking website, as the company said it was quickly addressing a disruption that had affected some cellular services. The number of reports of T-mobile outages over the preceding 24 hours had peaked at more than 83,000 at around 10:20 p.m. T-Mobile's help page responded to Twitter messages from users experiencing problems, saying it would review the complaints. Downdetector also reported thousands of reports of services of other U.S. wireless carriers Verizon Inc (VZ.N) and AT&T Inc (T.N) being down. The website showed more than 2,000 unresolved incident reports for Verizon and more than 1,200 for AT&T at the peaks.

☆ Mexico arrests cartel member suspected of leading fentanyl trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Mexico's defence ministry said Sunday that security forces had arrested a suspected top cartel member accused of leading the region's production of fentanyl, which has killed thousands in the United States. The arrest, which took place on Thursday in the state of Sinaloa, came just weeks after U.S. President Joe Biden visited Mexico, and followed the recent high-profile arrest of cartel leader Ovidio Guzman. The suspect is described as being a leading logistics chief for the famed narco trafficker known as "Mayo Zambada," who jointly headed the powerful Sinaloa cartel. Following standard procedure in Mexcio, it named him as Jose "N", not giving his full name. Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Investors see Hong Kong property stocks, funds as reopening trades
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Georgina Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Investors see value in property companies regardless of whether their assets are in mainland China or Hong Kong, which reopened at about the same time. Rises in Hong Kong mortgage rates that began last year have compounded troubles for developers and mortgagees. Hong Kong interest rates tailgate those of the U.S. due to the local currency's peg to the dollar. "Hong Kong has a lot more to get us excited than China property companies where their financial data remains weak," said Tim Gibson, co-head of Global Property Equities at Janus Henderson Investors. "We remain positive on Hong Kong and many of its listed real asset companies, across infrastructure, utilities and property," said Fitzgerald.

☆ Nissan, Renault to invest $600 million to make 6 new models in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mike BlakeTOKYO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Renault SA (RENA.PA) said on Monday they would invest $600 million to make six new models in India, one of three markets in which the two automakers plan to coordinate closely in a revamped alliance announced last week. Two models would be electric vehicles (EVs), the companies' first in India; the others would be sports utility vehicles. Unlike Nissan, Renault does not have a significant presence China, the United States and Japan, raising the stakes for its success in India. Industry-wide sales in India surged 23% last year to 4.4 million vehicles, overtaking the Japanese market, according to S&P Global Mobility. The Chennai plant can produce about 500,000 vehicles a year, but last year Renault sold only 87,000 in India and Nissan 35,000.

At 6 p.m. (0500 GMT) Gabrielle had moved southeast of Auckland, near the east coast of the country's North Island, and was expected to continue moving southeast, roughly parallel to the coast. Weather warnings remained in place for much of the east coast of the North Island and upper South Island. A view shows high tides rising due to Cyclone Gabrielle in Arkles Bay, Auckland, New Zealand February 13, 2023 in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. A New Zealand warship rescued a person from a yacht that turned on its emergency beacon this morning off the east coast. New Zealand declared national emergencies after an earthquake in 2011 and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

☆ Walmart to close three U.S. tech hubs, relocate staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N) will close three of its U.S. technology hubs, asking hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Monday. Nearly all technology employees across the company would be expected to work in their offices for at least two days a week, added Robert Munroe, Walmart's director of global communications. The big-box retailer would close offices that housed technology staff in Austin, Texas, in Carlsbad, California and in Portland, Oregon, Munroe said. The operations would move to hubs including one in San Bruno, California or the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, he said, citing a memo sent last week by Walmart's global technology head, Suresh Kumar. The company currently has 11 tech hubs in the U.S. and six abroad, according to its website.

The suspect, identified by District of Columbia Metropolitan Police as 26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin, was charged with simple assault. Craig's chief of staff, Nick Coe, said that Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota was bruised but "physically OK" following the attack, which did not appear to be politically motivated. "When the victim defended themselves, the suspect fled the scene," police said. Craig defended herself by throwing hot coffee at the attacker before he fled the scene, according to the report. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, said he spoke to Craig and said she was doing fine.

☆ Malaysia Q4 GDP up 7% on year earlier, above forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Malaysia's economy in the fourth quarter grew 7% from a year earlier on continued expansion in domestic demand and resilient demand for electrical and electronics goods, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said on Friday. Gross domestic product (GDP) for all of 2022 had been 8.7% higher than in 2021, she said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the central bank to report October-December GDP 6.6% higher than in the same period of 2021, slowing from the 14.2% annual growth seen in the third quarter. Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"The company has received a proposal from the JIP consortium," Toshiba said in a statement. Two of the sources said major Japanese banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), had issued letters of commitment to provide 1.4 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) in loans to the group. The final buyout proposal would also include an equity portion of about 1 trillion yen, they said. The Nikkei business daily reported the total value of the buyout proposal was around 2 trillion yen. JIP was then asked by Toshiba to provide commitment letters from banks by Nov. 7, something it was unable to do.

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