India's Modi heads to London for 2-day visit
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CNA
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Japan Q2 GDP probably back to growth, averting technical recession: Reuters poll
TOKYO :Japan's economy probably grew marginally in April-June due to resilient consumption and net exports, managing to avoid a technical recession, or two straight quarters of contraction, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. Gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms expanded an annualised 0.4 per cent in the second quarter, according to the median forecast of 16 economists, following an annualised 0.2 per cent drop in the first quarter. Without annualisation, the second-quarter growth rate was estimated at 0.1 per cent. Japan's GDP "likely achieved positive growth for the first time in two quarters, supported by resilient domestic demand ... and a slight recovery in external demand," said Shinichiro Kobayashi, principal economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. Private consumption, which accounts for more than half Japan's GDP, probably grew 0.1 per cent in April-June, at the same rate as in January-March, despite a prolonged period of high consumer inflation. But capital expenditure growth was seen slowing to 0.5 per cent from the previous quarter's 1.1 per cent. External demand or net exports, which is exports minus imports, probably added 0.2 per centage points to the second-quarter GDP growth, after it shaved 0.8 points in the first quarter. Although Japanese exports decreased year-on-year in May and June, led by falling car shipments to the United States amid President Donald Trump's tariffs, a faster decline in imports was likely to have resulted in a positive net export contribution in April-June quarter, analysts said. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady but offered a less gloomy economic outlook after Japan reached a trade deal with the U.S. last week to lower levies on Japanese exports. A majority of analysts expected an additional rate hike by year-end in a Reuters survey last month. The government will release the April-June GDP data on August 15 at 8:50 a.m. (2350 GMT on August 14).
CNA
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Trump unveils new tariffs for dozens of trading partners
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CNA
3 hours ago
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CEO Tim Cook says Apple ready to open its wallet to catch up in AI
SAN FRANCISCO :Apple CEO Tim Cook signaled on Thursday the iPhone maker was ready to spend more to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence by building more data centers or buying a larger player in the segment, a departure from a long practice of fiscal frugality. Apple has struggled to keep pace with rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, both of which have attracted hundreds of millions of users to their AI-powered chatbots and assistants. That growth has come at a steep cost, however, with Google planning to spend $85 billion over the next year and Microsoft on track to spend more than $100 billion, mostly on data centers. Apple, in contrast, has leaned on outside data center providers to handle some of its cloud computing work, and despite a high-profile partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI for certain iPhone features, has tried to grow much of its AI technology in-house, including improvements to its Siri virtual assistant. The results have been rocky, with the company delaying its Siri improvements until next year. During a conference call after Apple's fiscal third-quarter results, analysts noted that Apple has historically not done large deals and asked whether it might take a different approach to pursue its AI ambitions. CEO Cook responded that the company had already acquired seven smaller companies this year and is open to buying larger ones. "We're very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature," Cook said. "We basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap, and if they do, then we're interested." Apple has tended to buy smaller firms with highly specialized technical teams to build out specific products. Its largest deal ever was its purchase of Beats Electronics for $3 billion in 2014, followed by a $1 billion deal to buy a modem chip business from Intel. But now Apple is at a unique crossroads for its business. The tens of billions of dollars per year it receives from Google as payment to be the default search engine on iPhones could be undone by U.S. courts in Google's antitrust trial, while startups like Perplexity are in discussions with handset makers to try to dislodge Google with an AI-powered browser that would handle many search functions. Apple executives have said in court they are considering reshaping the firm's Safari browser with AI-powered search functions, and Bloomberg News has reported that Apple executives have discussed buying Perplexity, which Reuters has not independently confirmed. Apple also said on Thursday it plans to spend more on data centers, an area where it typically spends only a few billion dollars per year. Apple is currently using its own chip designs to handle AI requests with privacy controls that are compatible with the privacy features on its devices. Kevan Parekh, Apple's chief financial officer, did not give specific spending targets but said outlays would rise. "It's not going to be exponential growth, but it is going to grow substantially," Parekh said during the conference call.
