Posts by Mark Darwin
China defends manufacturing push, says world needs more EVs
CHINA’S manufacturing capacity is helping the world fight climate change and contain inflation, said Vice Finance Minister Liao Min, pushing back against US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s latest criticism of the nation’s industrial excess. “For decades, China has been a force of disinflation for the world through its supply of manufactured products with good value…
Read MoreApple Intelligence to miss initial launch of upcoming iOS 18 overhaul
APPLE’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) features will arrive later than anticipated, missing the initial launch of its upcoming iPhone and iPad software overhauls but giving the company more time to fix bugs. The company is planning to begin rolling out Apple Intelligence to customers as part of software updates coming by October, according to sources…
Read MoreAustralia rate-hike debate set to crescendo with inflation data
DEBATE over whether Australia’s central bank needs to deliver a late-cycle policy tightening is likely to be resolved with the release of quarterly inflation data this week – and the currency is set to be swept up in the fallout. Headline consumer prices probably advanced 3.8 per cent in the second quarter from a year…
Read MoreMore project finance needed to decarbonise transport, materials sectors: Citi
MORE project finance is needed to transition “hard-to-abate” sectors – such as steel and cement production, aviation and shipping – towards clean energy, said a report by banking group Citi. Project finance is a loan structure where the project’s future cash flows are used for repayment, meaning that it is tied to the success of…
Read MoreMaintaining balance sheet strengths as S-Reits average 39% gearing
WITH almost full certainty that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this September (based on CME Fed Watch Tool showing a 100 per cent probability as of Jul 26, 2024), interest rates continue to remain in the spotlight for Reits. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has just announced a proposal to simplify the…
Read MoreUS: Wall St opens strong as megacaps recover; inflation data in focus
Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher on Friday (Jul 26), with the Nasdaq taking the lead as most megacap tech and chip stocks recovered from the week’s pummelling and a largely in-line key inflation reading kept rate-cut bets intact. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 205.79 points, or 0.52 per cent, at the open to…
Read MoreSIA Engineering net profit rises 23% to S$33.2 million in Q1 on healthy MRO demand
AIRCRAFT maintenance provider SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) reported a net profit of S$33.2 million for its first quarter ended Jun 30. This was up 23 per cent from S$27 million in the corresponding year-ago period. Demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services remained healthy in the three months, SIAEC said on Friday (Jul 26).…
Read MoreThe Bank of England gets a positive hint about rate cuts from service prices
SOME of the United Kingdom price indicators the Bank of England (BOE) is watching closely for signs of lingering inflation are flashing a green light for interest-rate reductions as soon as next week. Analysis by Bloomberg Economics showed that services inflation has eased more than the headline measure suggests, once volatile parts dismissed by central…
Read MoreChina’s made-in-Europe EVs pose new threat to region’s carmakers
CHINA’S electric carmakers are expanding in Europe to blunt the impact of tariffs meant to weaken their price advantage over the region’s ailing legacy manufacturers. With the European Union hiking duties on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) to as much as 48 per cent, China’s new generation of green car manufacturers is teaming up with local…
Read MoreChangi Airport’s Q2 passenger movements hits 98.2% of pre-pandemic level
CHANGI Airport had around 16.5 million passengers passing through its terminals in the second quarter of 2024, up 13.4 per cent from the year before. The figure was 98.2 per cent of passenger movements that went through it in Q2 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, said Changi Airport Group (CAG) on Friday (Jul 26). The…
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