Asian shares gain as investors shrug off downbeat data on economic growthAP, BANGKOKShares rose in Asia on Friday, despite data suggesting economies are slowing. The advance tracked gains on Wall Street, where the market later posted its first weekly gain after three weeks of punishing losses. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.19 percent to 159.21, gaining 1.5 percent for the week. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 on Friday rose 0.8 percent to 6,577.40, bringing its weekly gain to 1.6 percent. Market players are looking ahead to US inflation data due next week.

WTI posts weekly loss as recession jitters dent pricesBloombergOil posted its first back-to-back weekly loss since early April as fears of a demand-sapping global recession and tighter US monetary policy ripped through commodity markets to spur a broad sell-off. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery fell 1.7 percent for the week to settle at US$107.62 a barrel. Brent crude for August delivery rose 2.5 percent weekly to settle at US$112.12 a barrel. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish testimony to the US Congress earlier in the week overshadowed a fundamentally tight market. Despite declining headline prices, the market remains in backwardation, a bullish pattern in which near-term prices trade above longer-dated ones, has grown in recent days.

South Asia ties need to be nurturedBy Sumit KumarPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has focused on improving relations with South Asian countries under the New Southbound Policy. However, Taiwan’s relations with South Asian countries remain weak. Trade barriers imposed by South Asian countries are another obstacle preventing ties with Taiwan, particularly in the field of economics. These challenges notwithstanding, there is no denying that improving bilateral ties would be beneficial for Taiwan and South Asian countries. In addition to encouraging South Asian students to pursue higher education in the nation, Taiwanese universities could also establish satellite schools in South Asia.

CDC issues warning after first Japanese encephalitis caseBy Lin Hui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning after Taiwan on Monday reported this year’s first case of Japanese encephalitis. The case is a man in his 50s from Tainan’s Beimen District (北門), the CDC said. Japanese encephalitis season is from May to October, with case numbers usually peaking in June and July, the agency said. Those mosquito species breed in rice paddies, ponds and irrigation channels, and mostly bite in the evening, the CDC said. Those living near mosquito breeding grounds should bolster mosquito prevention measures and get vaccinated against the disease, it added.

Retail sales in UK fall as high living costs hit spendingBloombergUK retail sales fell last month as soaring food prices and the wider cost of living crisis forced consumer to cut back on spending. Photo: ReutersThe drop — the third in the past four months — was driven by a 1.6 percent fall in food sales, particularly at large supermarkets, which the ONS linked to soaring prices. Data earlier this week showed overall inflation hit a four-decade high of 9.1 percent last month. With wages failing to keep pace with rising prices, consumer finances are being squeezed and leading to a more gloomy outlook than during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. RETAIL DRAGSales at supermarkets fell 1.5 percent last month, while sales of tobacco, alcohol and other drinks dropped 4 percent, the ONS said.

Land deals by value decline 27% in first halfBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterLand transactions by listed firms totaled NT$49.1 billion (US$1.65 billion) in the first half of this year, falling 27 percent from a year earlier, as companies turned cautious about investing in land, Sinyi Global Realty Co (信義全球) said yesterday. Soaring land and labor prices have prompted property developers to slow the pace of acquiring land, Sinyi Global said, adding that land financing restrictions and interest rate hikes also weighed on purchases. About 90 percent of the land deals fell outside Greater Taipei, where large and idle land is hard to find, especially in popular locations, it said. Sinyi Global said it expects the cautious sentiment to persist next quarter, as developers would hesitate to add to their land inventory unless they are confident about sales. Property funds are likely to continue to flow to central and southern Taiwan, where the cost of land is more affordable, it said.

Taiwanese manufacturers holding a positive outlook dropped 2.3 percentage points to 25 percent, while those with a bleak view gained 9.4 percentage points to 28.9 percent, TIER found. The confidence reading for companies in the service sector came in at 95.26, up 0.6 percentage points from one month earlier, as the industry has likely bottomed out, it said. Wholesale firms are divided about the business landscape moving forward, but retailers, restaurants and financial institutions are expecting an uptick after going through rough times, TIER said. The pickup in confidence is more evident among companies involved in civil engineering projects, property development and real estate, with the gauge rising 2.04 percentage points to 98.14, it said. The property market might come out of the woods next quarter when people feel more comfortable about resuming house hunting, TIER said, adding that the COVID-19 outbreak had delayed, but not eliminated demand for housing.

Nanya Technology sees mild revenue declineBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterDRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said it expects a mild decline in revenue this year as mounting inflation is depressing spending on consumer electronics, which has led to an inventory correction from PC and smartphone companies. “Nanya Technology has done quite a good job in the first half of this year. We hope [revenue] would drop only slightly for the whole year of this year, compared with last year,” Lee said. The company plans to deploy 10-nanometer process technology, developed entirely by the chipmaker, he said. It also plans to use extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV, tools when the chipmaker starts producing chips using fourth-generation 10-nanometer technology, it said.

Eurozone business growth slumps as price hikes biteReuters, LONDONEurozone business growth has slowed significantly this month — and by much more than expected — as consumers concerned about soaring bills opted to stay at home and defer purchases to save money, a survey showed yesterday. “Eurozone economic growth is showing signs of faltering as the tailwind of pent-up demand from the [COVID-19] pandemic is already fading, having been offset by the cost of living shock, and slumping business and consumer confidence,” S&P Global chief business economist Chris Williamson said. The composite new business index dropped to a 16-month low of 50, the dividing line between growth and contraction, from 53.3. Growth in demand for services all but dried up, and firms faced input costs rising at a near-record rate, forcing them to pass some of that burden on to customers. “Inflows of new business have stalled, led by a slump in demand for goods and reduced demand for services from cash-strapped consumers in particular,” Williamson said.

Wu Bai to bring big hits to home of Rakuten MonkeysBy Jason Pan / Staff reporter“King of Live Music” Wu Bai and his band China Blue are to bring their big hits to the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium on Sunday in a bid to help the Rakuten Monkeys pick up some hits to stay at the top of the CPBL table this season. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei TimesThe Monkeys said in a statement this week that Wu Bai and China Blue are to perform following their contest against the Lions on Sunday. Since 1992, Wu Bai and China Blue have had many hits in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Mandarin, with a huge following in Taiwan, China and Southeast Asia. Rakuten Monkeys manager Tseng Hao-chu, right, congratulates Huang Tzu-peng for his performance against the Uni-President Lions in their CPBL game in Taoyuan on Wednesday. Rock musician Wu Bai is shown in an undated promotional photograph.

Global stock markets and oil prices also hit the skids yesterday as worries about rising interest rates and recessions persisted. In Taipei yesterday, the TAIEX closed down 380.89 points, or 2.42 percent, at 15,347.75. Turnover totaled NT$278.532 billion (US$9.35 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$22.44 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Investors would be looking for further clues about whether another 75 basis-point rate hike is on the cards for next month. Economists polled by Reuters expect the Fed to deliver a 75-basis-point interest rate hike next month, followed by a 0.5 percentage-point rise in September.

Lysychansk city is enduring ‘massive’ bombardment: KyivAFP, KYIVUkrainian forces are facing “massive” and relentless artillery attacks in a battleground eastern city, Kyiv said on Tuesday. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces tightening their grip on Severodonetsk in the Donbas region, its twin city of Lysychansk is now coming under heavier bombardment. Photo: AFP“The Russian army is massively shelling Lysychansk,” Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region, which includes both cities, wrote on Telegram. In Lysychansk, a Russian strike had left a gaping hole in a police station and damaged nearby apartment blocks, journalists in the city reported. Fifteen people were killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday, its governor said.

Microsoft stops selling emotion-reading technologyReuters, OAKLAND, CaliforniaMicrosoft Corp on Tuesday said that it would stop selling technology that guesses someone’s emotion based on a facial image and would no longer provide unfettered access to facial recognition technology. Since at least last year, Microsoft has been reviewing whether emotion recognition systems are rooted in science. Existing customers would have one year before losing access to artificial intelligence tools that purport to infer emotion, gender, age, smile, facial hair, hair and makeup. Google blocked 13 planned emotions from its tool for reading emotion and placed under review four existing ones, such as joy and sorrow. Microsoft also said customers now must obtain approval to use its facial recognition services, which can enable people to log into Web sites or open locked doors through a face scan.

Taipei ranked 10th in global quality of living survey‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportationStaff writer, with CNATaipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. Photo: CNAThe survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five. Among Asian cities, only Tokyo finished above Taipei, placing sixth. The article lauded Taipei for its low crime rate and “world-class healthcare system,” as well as its convenient public transportation and cheap cost of living.

US rejects China’s claims over StraitALARM GROWS: US officials are concerned that China’s claim that the Taiwan Strait is an internal waterway is a deliberate effort to muddy the legal status of Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and is increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts over the past few months. In the past, while China regularly protested US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters was not a regular talking point in meetings with US officials. The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the