Apple partners to boost business use of iPads-iPhones

Apple and computer network titan Cisco on Monday announced a partnership aimed at putting more iPhones and iPads to work at businesses. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

SEP 1, 20157:06 AM

[SAN FRANCISCO] Apple and computer network titan Cisco on Monday announced a partnership aimed at putting more iPhones and iPads to work at businesses.

The companies said in a joint release that they will optimise Cisco networks to provide a "fast lane" for devices and applications running on Apple's iOS mobile operating system.

"Nearly every Fortune 500 and Global 500 company today has put iOS at the center of their mobile strategy," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in the release.

"Together with Cisco, we believe we can give businesses the tools to maximize the potential of iOS and help employees become even more productive using the devices they already love." Businesses have long been dealing with employees using their personal smartphones or tablets to get work done.

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Making company computer networks more friendly to iPhones and iPads holds the promise of helping Apple achieve further inroads in workplaces with devices that have been hits with consumers.

Microsoft has long dominated business computing with its software. But it has seen its position threatened by lifestyle shifts to mobile lifestyles in which devices powered by Apple or Android software are the leaders.

Cisco said that its networks, which serve as backbones for company computer systems, will be modified to work more efficiently and reliably with iPhones and iPads with the goal of enabling higher levels of performance.

Improvements will include weaving iPhone into Cisco phone and video systems, according to the release.

"Ninety-five per cent of companies in the Fortune 500 count on Cisco collaboration and Cisco networks to help their teams be more productive," said Cisco executive chairman John Chambers.

"Through this engineering and go-to-market partnership, we're offering our joint customers the ability to seamlessly extend that awesome Cisco environment to their favorite iOS devices."

AFP

    
 

SpaceX delays next launch after blast

SpaceX said on Monday it has delayed by a couple of months the return to flight of its Falcon 9 rocket, following an explosion on the way to the space station in June. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

SEP 1, 20156:48 AM

[LOS ANGELES] SpaceX said on Monday it has delayed by a couple of months the return to flight of its Falcon 9 rocket, following an explosion on the way to the space station in June.

The company's chief executive, Elon Musk, had said previously that the rocket would launch no earlier than September, after a failed strut was blamed for the rocket's demise just minutes after takeoff on June 28 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"It's taking more time than we originally envisioned to get back to flight," SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell told a spaceflight conference in Pasadena, California.

"We're a couple of months away from the next flight." The blast destroyed what was supposed to be a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station and caused NASA at least US$110 million in lost equipment.

Mr Musk, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal who also heads Tesla Motors, said that SpaceX had had a seven-year record of safety in flight until the accident happened.

Ms Shotwell said the problem was relatively easy to fix, and that engineers were just being extra cautious in the hunt for other potential issues.

"What we wanted to do was to take advantage of the lessons that we learned from that particular failure and make sure we're not seeing something like that anywhere throughout the vehicle," she said at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Space conference.

AFP

    
 

Dollar dips as investors seek Fed rate hike clues  

The dollar dipped against the euro and the yen Monday in cautious trade as investors weighed the likelihood of a Federal Reserve increase in zero-level interest rates next month. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

SEP 1, 20156:50 AM

[NEW YORK] The dollar dipped against the euro and the yen Monday in cautious trade as investors weighed the likelihood of a Federal Reserve increase in zero-level interest rates next month.

"The dollar capped off a month of general underperformance with another drift lower as global stock losses benefited the low-yielding euro and safer Japanese currency," said Joe Manimbo of Western Union Business Solutions.

"The dollar struggled as worries about a weakening Chinese economy threw up a potential obstacle for the Fed to raise interest rates," he said.

Federal Reserve officials at a weekend conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave no clear signal about the timing of the central bank's first rate hike in over nine years.

In a speech, the Fed's number two Stanley Fischer said: "We should not wait until inflation is back to two percent to begin tightening."

"After his speech, if we see some strong US data this week, this will increase the odds of a September rate hike and that should help the dollar," said Omer Esiner of Commonwealth Foreign Exchange.

The upcoming August US jobs report, due on Friday, will be in focus as the Federal Open Market Committee assesses whether the US economy's improvement is strong enough to weather a rate hike.

The key data come less than two weeks before the FOMC announces its rate decision on September 17.

AFP

      

China official services PMI falls to 53.4 in August    

Growth in China's services industry cooled in August from the previous month, an official survey showed on Tuesday, adding to concerns that world's second-largest economy may be a risk of a sharper slowdown than earlier feared. 

PHOTO: GRANDE ELECTRON

SEP 1, 20159:17 AM

[BEIJING] Growth in China's services industry cooled in August from the previous month, an official survey showed on Tuesday, adding to concerns that world's second-largest economy may be a risk of a sharper slowdown than earlier feared.

The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 53.4 from July's reading of 53.9, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

A reading above 50 points indicates an expansion in activity on a monthly basis, while one below that points to a contraction.

The services sector has accounted for the bigger part of China's economic output for at least two years, with its share rising to 48.2 per cent last year, compared with the 42.6 percent contribution from manufacturing and construction.

However, softening demand, tougher competition and tighter credit conditions are all challenging the sector, while a stock market crash in early summer is likely to dampen revenues for banks, brokerages and other financial instituations.

REUTERS

      

Japan Q2 capex growth slows, keeps pressure for more economic stimulus  

Japanese corporate capital expenditure increased 5.6 per cent in April-June from a year ago, slowing from the previous quarter and adding to signs of an economy struggling to recover from a slump. 

PHOTO: AFP

SEP 1, 20158:32 AM

[TOKYO] Japanese corporate capital expenditure increased 5.6 per cent in April-June from a year ago, slowing from the previous quarter and adding to signs of an economy struggling to recover from a slump.

The data keeps pressure on policymakers to top up stimulus as they worry about persistent weakness in private consumption and exports with China's slowdown hitting global markets.

Corporate spending on plant and equipment, along with wage growth, hold the key to the success of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary policies aimed at putting a firm end to 15 years of grinding deflation and economic stagnation.

The increase in capital expenditure followed a 7.3 per cent annual gain in January-March, data by the Ministry of Finance showed on Tuesday.

Excluding spending on software, capital expenditure fell a seasonally-adjusted 2.7 per cent from the previous quarter, after rising 6.0 per cent in January-March.

The data, which will be used for calculating revised gross domestic product data due Sept 8, also showed corporate recurring profits jumped 23.8 per cent from a year earlier with sales up 1.1 per cent.

A preliminary estimate showed the world's third-largest economy contracted an annualised 1.6 per cent in April-June as exports slumped and consumers cut back spending.

Many analysts expect any rebound in growth in the current quarter to be modest, as rising grocery costs cool consumption and sluggish Asian demand weigh on exports.

Policymakers are clinging to hope that capital expenditure will serve as a driver of Japan's recovery, but some fret the recent market turmoil may prompt firms to delay spending plans.

REUTERS

      

Brazil government budget goes into the red

Brazil's government presented a 2016 budget on Monday that for the first time projects the world's seventh largest economy operating in the red, sparking worries that the country's investment grade rating will be put at risk. 

PHOTO: AFP

SEP 1, 20156:45 AM

[BRASÍLIA] Brazil's government presented a 2016 budget on Monday that for the first time projects the world's seventh largest economy operating in the red, sparking worries that the country's investment grade rating will be put at risk.

Embattled President Dilma Rousseff's government delivered the proposed budget to Congress predicting a primary deficit amounting to 0.5 per cent of GDP, or 30.5 billion reais (S$11.8 billion).

The budget plan calculates inflation of 5.4 per cent next year and anemic GDP growth at 0.2 per cent.

This was the first time a Brazilian government has delivered a plan that would mean government spending outstripped receipts.

The news follows last week's prediction that Brazil has just entered the worst recession since 1931 and a host of other downbeat economic news, coupled with political turmoil.

Markets fell sharply to the new blow.

The real, which has already lost 26.61 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, hit a 12-year low on the news, down 1.1 per cent to 3.627 reais to the dollar. The Sao Paulo stock market lost 1.12 per cent.

A primary budget reflects the government's ability to manage savings and debt. The worry for Brazil now is that its debt load will lead to a loss of its investment-grade credit rating, which would be a serious blow to the economy.

The acknowledgment that Brazil cannot balance its books followed the government's abandonment in the face of Congressional opposition of a plan to bring back and unpopular tax on financial transactions.

Cutting spending is also tricky, given the political damage that austerity measures have already caused Ms Rousseff's weak government.

But Finance Minister Joaquim Levy was confident, saying "the equation in Brazil has a solution." "It's an equation of growth, which is resolved through cooperation, dialogue and political will," he said.

Brazil saw boom years peaking with 7.5 per cent economic growth in 2010, but Latin America's biggest country, the host of next year's Summer Olympics, has been brought down by plunging commodity prices and political instability.

AFP