Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will on Monday make a pitch in Michigan for Congress to approve $52 billion to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing even as it continues to review data on the chips market from companies around the world.Raimondo is visiting a United Auto Workers local hall and meeting with Michigan politicians, officials from General Motors Co (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor (NYSE:F) and Chrysler-parent Stellantis on the chips push.Detroit’s Big Three automakers and other global automakers have been forced to cut production and even make some vehicles without features like heated seats or digital speedometers because of semiconductor shortage.In September, the Commerce Department issued a request for information on the chips market to automakers, chip companies and others, saying the information would boost supply-chain transparency, and set a Nov. 8 deadline to respond.Raimondo told reporters more than 150 firms “including many companies in Asia” voluntarily submitted data to the department. “We’re very pleased with the volume of response,” Raimondo said. “These are extremely detailed and we’re still evaluating the quality of the submissions.”Raimondo said it will be “several more weeks” before the department will offer its assessment. She also expects to share a high-level summary but pledged to protect confidential company data.She added it is too soon to say if the department will need to invoke compulsory measures to get additional data: “It’s still an option.”On Nov. 17, House and Senate leaders said they will negotiate seeking final agreement on a bill to boost U.S. technology competitiveness with China and semiconductor manufacturing. The Senate-approved legislation would award $52 billion for semiconductor manufacturing and authorize $190 billion to strengthen U.S. technology and research. “We need the House to pass its version of the CHIPS Act,” Raimondo plans to say Monday in a separate Detroit Economic Club appearance according to excerpts released by her office. “China, Taiwan, the EU, and so many others are all moving forward, while the United States is playing catch up. We cannot afford to fall behind.”Raimondo will add the United States needs “our partners and allies to maintain a strong global supply chain and address this shortage. That’s why Commerce is pursuing strategies like ‘nearshoring’ and ‘friendshoring,’ so like-minded partners are integrated into our supply chains.”Last week, Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) said it had picked Taylor, Texas as the location for a new $17 billion plant to make advanced chips. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s retail sales rose for the first time in three months in October, though less than expected, data showed on Monday, a sign private consumption has yet to pick up strongly despite the easing of COVID-19 curbs amid a fragile economic recovery.Following a larger-than-expected contraction in July-September, analysts expect the world’s third-largest economy to rebound this quarter thanks to an upturn in household spending, while supply-side concerns still loom for export-reliant businesses.Retail sales rose 0.9% in October from a year earlier, government data showed on Monday, versus the median market forecast for a 1.1% increase.Compared with the previous month, retail sales grew 1.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis.Japan has eased coronavirus restrictions on restaurant hours, large-scale events and border controls as infections have fallen dramatically and more than three-fourths of its population is fully vaccinated.Private-sector statistics, however, had shown the comeback of consumer spending was gradual in October, and analysts said a full recovery in sectors hit hard by the pandemic such as face-to-face services will take longer time.To boost Japan’s lukewarm economic recovery, the government earlier this month announced a record $490 billion stimulus package, including cash payouts to households with children and subsidies to COVID-hit businesses. More

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Australia’s economy likely contracted in the third quarter as fresh lockdowns weighed on consumer spending and investments, but the extent of the fall was milder than the historic recession recorded last year, a Reuters poll showed.Despite Australia’s success last year in containing the COVID-19 virus, fresh flare ups and the stay-at-home rule imposed this year severely dented economic activity leading to job cuts and calls for a ramped-up vaccination drive.The Nov. 23-26 poll of 24 economists showed the A$2.07 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy contracted 2.7% during the July-September quarter. Forecasts ranged from -3.8% to -1.9%.If economists predictions were realised, it would mark a sharp turnaround in economic activity from the 1.8% and 0.7% expansion rates in the January-March and April-June quarters respectively.”Extended stay-at-home orders in New South Wales and Victoria will have hit consumption, with services spending set to be particularly impacted,” said Felicity Emmett, senior economist at ANZ.The year-over-year growth was estimated at 3.0% but that was over a decline of 3.6% in the third quarter last year, revealing no substantial growth.Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed capital expenditure fell a real 2.2% in the third quarter but an upgrade to future spending showed analysts were expecting a rapid recovery to take hold.Construction activity too declined last quarter but at a much smaller rate than expected, showing a recovery was not far off.”The fact investment held up pretty well, we expect GDP to surpass its pre-delta level this quarter. Consumption will probably rebound very sharply given lockdowns have now ended,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior Australia & New Zealand economist at Capital Economics.Despite the setback to economic growth last quarter, economists do not see that trend turning into a full blown recession.With about 86% of Australia’s adult population now vaccinated and most restrictions eased, a swift recovery is anticipated on higher consumer spending.”There is a saying that while history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme. The pattern for GDP in the second half of 2021 is certainly rhyming with the middle quarters of 2020 – a sharp decline followed by a large bounce,” wrote economists at ANZ.($1 = 1.3986 Australian dollars) More

HONG KONG (Reuters) -After years of expansion in Hong Kong, cash-strapped Chinese developers are reducing their presence in one of the world’s most expensive property markets, allowing firms in the financial hub to scoop up some of their assets at distressed prices.Developers including China Evergrande Group and Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd, struggling under billions of dollars in debt, have sold some assets in recent months to Hong Kong developers to help ease liquidity stress back home.There’s more to come – Aoyuan Group, which this week extended the redemption date of onshore asset-backed securities, is trying to offload more Hong Kong properties to raise capital, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.Aoyuan is planning to sell a redeveloped office building in Kwai Chung in eastern Hong Kong, and the bidders will likely be local investors or family offices, said the sources, declining to be named as the information is confidential. The deal is expected to be sold at less than what Aoyuan paid for it, the sources added. Aoyuan bought the building for HK$950 million ($121.83 million) in 2018, and property agents estimate its current valuation at less than HK$800 million.This will follow a deal in mid-November, when Aoyuan sold some assets in a residential development in the Mid-Levels to a Hong Kong investor at a loss of HK$177 million.Aoyuan could not be reached for comment via its officially-listed email and calls to the company went unanswered.The trend will help Hong Kong property tycoons to further boost their dominance in the Chinese-controlled territory.Once deep-pocketed Chinese developers had moved aggressively into Hong Kong, outbidding their cross-border rivals for prime sites in the city as they searched for investment opportunities outside the mainland.But now those developers are facing an unprecedented cash crunch due to regulatory curbs as Beijing tries to reduce leverage in the sector, causing some to miss bond and wealth management product payments.Some builders have resorted to selling their assets to meet near-term repayment obligations.TREND REVERSAL”It’s a reversal of the trend,” said Reeves Yan, CBRE head of capital markets in Hong Kong. “Chinese developers with liquidity crunch are now selling, and it is expected that there will be more selling in the next few months (in Hong Kong).”Kaisa, which missed coupon payments totalling $88.4 million due earlier this month, sold a residential land parcel in Kai Tak, where Hong Kong’s old airport was situated, to local peers Far East Consortium and New World Development on Wednesday for a consideration of HK$7.9 billion, a stock exchange filing said.It recently sold another parcel in Tuen Mun in northern Hong Kong to local investor Francis Choi for HK$3.78 billion, Reuters reported this week. The sale helped Kaisa recover around HK$1.3 billion cash after repaying the loans it borrowed for the land. Kaisa declined to comment.Evergrande, which is grappling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, has transferred unsold units worth HK$2 billion in a residential development to its joint-venture partner VMS Group, a Hong Kong financial company, a separate source told Reuters.Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment.So far this year, taking into account only government land sales and not private ones between developers, only one Chinese property firm was involved in a land purchase worth HK$7.3 billion, which it jointly invested in with four Hong Kong peers.That compared with a total of HK$39 billion spent last year and a record of HK$58 billion in 2017, according to data compiled by CBRE.Some financially stronger Chinese developers are, however, still active in the market, sector observers said. In the city’s last residential land auction in October, state-owned China Overseas Land was the only Chinese company among the sixteen bidders, though it did not win. “The state-owned developers are still cash-rich, but the property market will be led more by Hong Kong investors going forward,” said Tom Ko, Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE:CWK)’s Hong Kong capital markets executive director. More

Several European countries have introduced restrictive measures due to a new increase in COVID-19 infections. The new coronavirus variant Omicron was detected in South Africa on Friday and has spread rapidly across Europe.”There is an obvious concern about the economic recovery [of the euro zone] in 2022, but I believe we have learnt a lot. We now know our enemy and what measures to take. We are all better equipped to respond to a risk of a fifth wave or the Omicron variant”, Lagarde told Italian broadcaster RAI on Sunday.”The crisis taught us this virus knows no boundaries. Therefore we will not be protected until we are all vaccinated”, Lagarde was quoted as saying in a simultaneous Italian translation from French. More

(Reuters) – OPEC is moving two technical meetings to later this week in order to give committees more time to evaluate the impact of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing delegates from some member countries.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is moving its joint technical committee meeting to Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. The joint ministerial monitoring committee, which comprises representatives of the broader oil producing OPEC+ group, will meet on Thursday, it added. More