(Bloomberg) -- Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. forecast another revenue decline after profit plunged by the most on record in the March quarter, when the novel coronavirus froze much of its China production and walloped global smartphone demand.Apple Inc.’s most important manufacturing partner recorded an 89% decline in net income to NT$2.1 billion ($70 million) in the first three months of 2020. Chairman Young Liu told analysts Friday the company anticipates a single-digit percentage decline in revenue in the June quarter from a year earlier. That would be its third consecutive quarterly sales drop.The earnings decline drove home to extent to which Covid-19 and the resultant global lockdown has chilled electronics demand and driven up costs for upstream producers like Hon Hai that had to adapt to supply chain disruption. Global shipments of smartphones fell at their fastest rate on record in the first quarter, hitting the assembler’s sales even though...
(Bloomberg) -- China’s securities regulator blacklisted six executives for their role in a $4.2 billion accounting scandal at Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co., one of the country’s biggest drugmakers.The ban includes Kangmei’s chairman at the time and five others, who won’t be allowed to participate in the securities market or take positions as executives or board members at any listed company for at least 10 years, Kangmei said in a stock-exchange filing. The China Securities Regulatory Commission also ordered the company, a producer of traditional Chinese medicines, to pay a 600,000 yuan ($84,510) fine.CSRC Chairman Yi Huiman said the regulator would spare no efforts in cracking down on financial fraud at listed companies, according to a China Central Television report Friday.After a months-long regulatory probe into its finances, Kangmei said in May last year that it had overstated its cash positions by 29.9 billion yuan using false documents and transaction records -- an...
(Bloomberg) -- Gold and silver are finishing the week on a high note, lifted by concerns over economic growth, a second wave of virus infections and simmering tensions between the U.S. and China.Gold headed back toward its peak in April, when prices hit the highest since 2012. Silver jumped to a two-month high. Prices are having a long-awaited breakout moment as market anxiety mounts, according to Rhona O’Connell, head of market analysis for EMEA and Asia at INTL FCStone.“There are fears over everything from political leadership through the health outlook overall and associated economic financial and political risk,” she said.Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,735.41 an ounce at 9:54 a.m. in London, heading for its second weekly gain. Silver jumped as much 3% and traded near $16.20 an ounce, with its discount to gold coming down from recent records.Investors turned to safe havens after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell...
(Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose and U.S. equity futures eked out gains, trimming declines at the end of a week dogged by concern about a second wave of coronavirus infections and simmering tension between America and China. Oil climbed and Treasuries drifted.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed led by mining and energy companies after missing a late rebound on Wall Street a day earlier. Futures contracts on the three main U.S. equity gauges pointed to more modest gains at the open, while Asian shares were mixed after data showed a rebound in Chinese industrial production but a deeper than expected drop in retail sales. Crude extended its recent advance amid signs the market is slowly rebalancing.It’s been a choppy week for investors as they grapple with the ongoing fallout of the coronavirus. Countries that had enjoyed success quelling the pandemic, including South Korea and China, now face a rise in cases,...
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(Bloomberg) -- Bearish bets have risen sharply on Singapore Airlines Ltd. shares, making it the most shorted stock in the city state as the carrier posted its biggest ever quarterly loss in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.Investors have become increasingly pessimistic about holding the stock, with short interest as a percentage of carrier’s free-float shares more than quadrupling to 15.5% since mid-March, according to data from IHS Markit. The company’s stock price has dropped 40% this year, almost double the decline in the nation’s equity benchmark.The carrier recorded a net loss of S$732 million ($515 million) in the quarter ended March compared with a profit in the year-earlier period, as the coronavirus pandemic wiped out demand and the company suffered fuel hedging losses, it said in a statement Thursday. The company does not expect to recover services to pre-virus levels in the next 12 to 18 months, the airline’s executives...
(Bloomberg) -- As it headed toward bankruptcy, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. took advantage of a little-noticed provision in the stimulus bill Congress passed in March to get a $9.7 million tax refund. Then, it asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize the same amount as bonuses to nine executives.The rig operator is one of dozens of oil companies and contractors now claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in tax rebates. They are employing a provision of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law, called the CARES act, that gives them more latitude to deduct recent losses.“This is a stealth bailout for the oil and gas industry,” said Jesse Coleman, a senior researcher with Documented, a watchdog group tracking the tax claims. It’s geared to companies “that have been losing money over the last few years -- and now they get that money back as a check from the taxpayers. That’s exactly what the oil...
