We need to find a fairer way of providing Goods and Services to the rest of the people on Earth.Cryptocurrencies and/or Gold Standard of money....maybe the answer to fight hyperinflation caused by too much printing of paper/fiat currencies by Governments and Central Banks all over the World. (https://nomorefiatmoneyplease.blogspot.com)
HSBC says internet banking services down after cyber attack
HSBC said on Friday that its personal banking websites in the UK have been suspended after a cyber attack, its second major service outage this month.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[LONDON] HSBC said on Friday that its personal banking websites in the UK have been suspended after a cyber attack, its second major service outage this month.
Europe's largest lender said in a statement it had successfully defended its systems against the denial of service attack, a mechanism often used by cyber criminals trying to disrupt businesses and companies with significant online activities.
Customer transactions were not affected, the bank said.
"We are working hard to restore services, and normal service is now being resumed," a spokeswoman said, apologising for any inconvenience caused by the incident.
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Thousands of the bank's customers were affected by a blackout on its personal banking online services in Britain during the first week of January.
HSBC offered no explanation for the cause of that glitch but confirmed it was not due to a cyber-attack or malicious act. Technicians were able to restore service after two days.
Britain's retail banks have been hit by a number of technology failures in recent years, prompting lawmakers to call for further investment in financial technology to provide a more efficient and reliable service to customers.
Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Co Ltd has raised its offer for troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp to 659 billion yen (US$5.44 billion), a deal that would dilute existing stockholders, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
[TAIPEI] Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Co Ltd has raised its offer for troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp to 659 billion yen (US$5.44 billion), a deal that would dilute existing stockholders, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Foxconn is not looking to buy out Sharp shareholders. Rather, the company would inject 389 billion yen into Sharp in exchange for new shares, after which it would hold a roughly two-thirds stake, one of the sources told the Journal.
Foxconn has also offered to buy 225 billion yen worth of preferred shares held by Sharp's two main banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group Inc , people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Sony profit beats estimates as games trump sensor slowdown
Sony Corp reported third-quarter profit and sales that beat analyst estimates as earnings from the booming PlayStation game business helped offset slowing demand for chips that power smartphone cameras.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[TOKYO] Sony Corp reported third-quarter profit and sales that beat analyst estimates as earnings from the booming PlayStation game business helped offset slowing demand for chips that power smartphone cameras.
Net income was 120.1 billion yen (S$1.42 billion) in the three months ended Dec 31, Sony said on Friday. That was more than the 91.1 billion yen average of four estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company posted a 90 billion yen profit a year earlier.
Sony has relied on image sensor demand to bolster profits while chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai shifts focus from consumer electronics to chips, video games and movies. The company has kept its forecast for the highest annual profit in eight years as sales of PlayStation 4 consoles help shield earnings from a slump in smartphone demand that led Apple Inc to forecast its first sales decline in more than a decade.
"The year-end shopping season was a tremendous boon for the game business. We are starting to see major blockbuster titles come out," Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo, said prior to the earnings announcement.
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"Image sensors are a negative as falling smartphone output damps chip demand. The next impetus will hinge on Apple's iPhone 7." Annual Forecasts Sony generated 202.1 billion yen of operating income on 2.58 trillion yen in sales in the third quarter. That compares with a 173.6 billion yen profit and 2.53 trillion yen revenue estimated by the analysts.
Shares of Sony rose 6.1 per cent to 2,523 yen before the earnings were released. The stock has fallen 16 per cent this year.
While Sony kept its full-year forecasts unchanged for the whole company, it increased projections for games on higher network sales while cutting expectations for the devices unit that produces image sensors.
Sony is sharpening its focus on streaming and online game services by bringing its PlayStation hardware, software and network operations under one roof. Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC will begin operations from April 1, based in San Mateo, California.
Sony has said it will launch PlayStation VR, a virtual reality headset, by June 30. The company's nearly 36 million- strong global base of PS4 consoles may give it an advantage over rivals like Facebook Inc.'s Oculus, which require a high-end computer to run. Sony can also leverage two decades of experience working with game studios and already has more than 100 titles in development.
About 7 million VR headsets will be sold by the end of 2016, according to market researcher IHS Technology. By 2020, the market is expected to reach $2.6 billion with 37 million headsets sold.
Imaging earnings were 23.7 billion yen in the quarter with the company cutting its full-year operating income forecast for the business to 39 billion yen. Sony also took a 30.6 billion yen impairment on its battery business.
Sony earlier this month agreed to pay US$212 million for Altair Semiconductor Ltd., an Israeli company which makes chipsets that can connect security systems, power meters and cars to the Web. Sony is also buying Toshiba Corp.'s image sensor operations.
Sony's film division was its fastest-growing in the quarter, with revenue climbing 27 per cent to 262.1 billion yen.
Sony had the fourth-biggest hit at the American box office in the quarter with "Spectre," the latest installment in the James Bond franchise. It grossed US$199 million in the quarter, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
Oil to average just over US$40 in 2016, biggest cut to forecasts in a year
Oil prices will average just over US$40 this year, the biggest cut to monthly forecasts in a year, as an influx of Iranian barrels hits an already-saturated world market, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
PHOTO: AFP
[LONDON] Oil prices will average just over US$40 this year, the biggest cut to monthly forecasts in a year, as an influx of Iranian barrels hits an already-saturated world market, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The survey of 29 economists and analysts forecast benchmark North Sea Brent crude will average US$42.5 a barrel, down US$10 from last month's poll.
This would be the largest drop between monthly surveys since January last year and the eighth successive monthly Reuters poll in which analysts have lowered their price forecasts.
Brent crude, which averaged about US$54 a barrel in 2015, has fallen nearly 9 per cent so far in January and has crashed from around US$115 a barrel in June 2014.
Oil prices fell below SU$30 a barrel this month to their lowest since 2003, under pressure from mounting concerns about the inability of even robust demand to keep pace with supply and the unlikely prospect that the world's largest producers would agree to curtail output.
"The most immediate issue for the market will be just how much oil Iran brings back to the market ... A significant difference to Iranian production in either direction should have an impact on prices," Capital Economics commodities analyst Thomas Pugh said.
Geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran may prevent the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries from coming to a consensus on cutting supply, analysts said.
"The chance of Opec taking any decision to cut output is highly unlikely. Saudi Arabia will participate in the output cut only if all the Opec members as well as other big producers (like Russia) also reduce output," CRISIL Research director Rahul Prithiani said.
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Friday the country's output could decline as a result of lower investment, but the state would not intervene to balance the market.
That appeared to pour cold water on possible joint Opec and non-Opec production cuts mentioned by Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday, comments which raised hopes of the first such global output deal in over a decade.
Record-high production from Opec's second-largest producer, Iraq and the addition of Iranian barrels after Western sanctions on Tehran were lifted have heightened concern that even growing demand will not be enough to absorb the extra supply.
"Even if no major event happens but supply remains more resilient than expected and demand a bit weaker, we could still see prices drift lower," Pugh said.
Analysts expect Brent and WTI futures to average US$34.4 and US$33.2, respectively, in the first quarter, considerably higher than what the futures market is pricing in.
Brent was trading at US$33.85 a barrel and WTI was at US$33.29 for March delivery.
The poll forecasts US light crude will average US$41 a barrel this year compared to around US$49 in 2015.
JPMorgan had the lowest 2016 forecast for Brent at US$31.25 a barrel, while Standard Chartered had the highest at US$63.
EC sees lower job losses from easing China trade defences: note
The European Commission has estimated job losses from relaxing trade defences against China well below predictions by opponents of the move, according to an EC document, in a sign it is leaning towards accepting Beijing's demands.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[BRUSSELS] The European Commission has estimated job losses from relaxing trade defences against China well below predictions by opponents of the move, according to an EC document, in a sign it is leaning towards accepting Beijing's demands.
Easing the defences without any mitigating measures would result in job losses in the range of between 63,600 and 211,000, according to a Commission document sent to member states before a trade ministers meeting on Feb. 2 and seen by Reuters.
The figure is in sharp contrast to the employment impact of between 1.7 and 3.5 million jobs in a study commissioned by Aegis Europe, a grouping of industries opposed to easing trade defences against China.
The European Union has to decide whether to recommend granting China "market economy status" by a Dec. 11 deadline, which Beijing says is its right 15 years after it joined the World Trade Organisation.
Market economy status would make it harder for Europe to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese goods sold at knock-down prices, changing the criteria for determining a fair price.
A decision will be taken together with the EU's 28 members and the European Parliament.
The Commission itself will discuss the matter again in July after receiving feedback. "The Commission has decided to conduct an in-depth impact assessment to inform its decision-making process," the note said.
The note from senior officials in the trade defence section of the Commission said the study for Aegis assumed decreased duties for all imports from China. However, products subject to anti-dumping duties are only applied on 1.38 percent of imports from China. The other study's findings should be viewed "with great caution", it said.
The EU is China's biggest trade partner, and China is second only to the United States for the EU. China's trade surplus with the bloc in goods was 137 billion euros (US$149.5 billion) in 2014.
The steel industry in particular has been a fierce opponent of any loosening of trade barriers against China, the EU sector lodging a series of complaints over dumping - selling at below domestic market prices or below the cost of production.
Free trade advocates say Europeans gain from cheaper Chinese imports and that companies such as Alstom or Siemens will gain easier access to China's vast market in return. Rebuffing Beijing also risks retaliation.
