From the monthly archives:
China exported 17.5% less goods in January than it did a year ago. The other side of the trade ledger was even uglier — imports plunged by 43%.
Those numbers aren’t pretty but China still had a $39 billion trade surplus in January.
You still want to avoid any Asian companies that heavily depend on sales to [...]
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Taiwan-based UMC (UMC: 3.53 -0.04 -1.12%), the second largest chip maker in the world, announced a 61% decrease in January sales.
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A tale of two money supplies.
Thanks to the runaway bailout/stimulus spending and near-zero percent interest rates, the money supply in the U.S. is skyrocketing.
In South Korea, money supply growth has slowed to the most sluggish pace in two years.
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When people run out of money, they stay home more and watch TV as a low cost entertainment option.
Since October, the ratings for Mandarin-language channel increased by 5.4%, rose by 12% for the Malay-language station, and by a whopping 50% for the Tamil-language station increased by 50% in Singapore.
At the same time, the food [...]
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Is the opportunity in India? You bet there is and here is one example.
Honeywell International expects its sales in India to double in three years to $1 billion.”We are ambitious of reaching $1 billion in three years’ time.”
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Here are two records that the Japanese aren’t too happy to hear about: (1) machinery orders fell by a record 16.7% in Q4 of 2008 and (2) exports were down a record 35.1% from the previous December.
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Ford, General Motors, and Chysler are dying. The efficient Japanese automakers aren’t doing very good either.
Nissan Motors (NSANY: 0.00 N/A N/A) announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 20,000 workers. That’s about 9% of its workforce.
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China is the world’s third largest shipbuilder but says that it expects new orders to drop by 50% this year.
That is probably good news for shipping companies, like Genco (GNK: 25.46 +0.36 +1.43%), because it means less competition down the road
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I knew this day was coming, but I thought it would take another decade or so — in January, more cars were sold in China than in the U.S.
Here is an interesting statistic: 60% of new cars purchased in the U.S. are bought with a loan but only 8% of cars in China are [...]
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Federal Express is closing down its Asia hub in the Philippines and moving it to Guangzhou.
Why the move? “The market in China is bigger than the entire market of Southeast Asia. China also gave FedEx rights to handle its domestic cargo, which is huge.”
The statement succinctly tells you why China is the most important [...]
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