K-Pop Looks to China to Supercharge Growth After Strong Earnings
Hybe, the powerhouse agency behind K-pop boy band BTS, saw its second-quarter revenue rise 10% from year earlier to about $510 million, a record for the period, while its operating profit surged 29% supported by concert attendance and merchandise sales.
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Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Applied Materials Warns Uncertainty Is Slowing Its Business, Especially in China
Key Takeaways Applied Materials said macroeconomic uncertainty is hurting its business, especially in China. The maker of equipment for semiconductors gave current-quarter guidance that was short of forecasts. Applied Materials beat third-quarter earnings and revenue estimates as sales at all three of its segments beat estimates. Shares of Applied Materials (AMAT) sank 13% in premarket trading Friday, a day after the semiconductor equipment manufacturer gave weaker-than-expected guidance as global economic and tariff worries impact its business, especially in China. The company sees current-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) between $1.91 and $2.31, and revenue between $6.20 billion and $7.20 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for $2.37 and $7.30 billion, respectively. CEO Gary Dickerson said Applied Materials was "currently operating in a dynamic macroeconomic and policy environment, which is creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility in the near term, including for our China business." CFO Brice Hill added that the company anticipates lower revenue "driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing." Q3 Results Top Analysts' Estimates The warning came as the company reported strong third-quarter results. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.48, with revenue rising 8% year-over-year to $7.30 billion. Both were ahead of Visible Alpha consensus estimates. Sales at all three Applied Materials units—Semiconductor Systems ($5.43 billion), Applied Global Services ($1.60 billion), and Display ($263 million)—beat forecasts. Entering Friday's session, Applied Materials shares were more than 15% higher year-to-date. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
6 minutes ago
- Forbes
Unable To Plan In 2025? Use AI To ‘Leave No Scenario Behind'
During in-person discussions with boards and senior leaders in Asia, the Americas and Europe this summer, the directors and executives cited the inability to plan as their single greatest business challenge in 2025. Consequently, effective leaders are conducting robust scenario planning to avoid stagnation or delayed decision making as recent advances in generative AI change how they approach scenario development. Why are businesses unable to plan? The global leaders provided several concurrent challenges that make planning difficult: Said one senior executive recently, 'We used to have a core scenario in place with a handful of back-ups, but now we need to have literally hundreds of options on the table and know which one to follow at any given time. And the answer can change daily or weekly and vary by product line or country.' The role of scenario analysis: Rehearsing the future Peter Schwartz, a pioneer of scenario planning and author of The Art of the Long View, likened the use of scenarios to 'rehearsing the future.' Similar to rehearsing a theater production, the process of scenario development historically required a collaborative effort of numerous individuals and several days, weeks, or months of refinement before the scenarios were ready for their intended audience. This traditional approach to scenario development generally was time-consuming and resource intensive. The role of AI in scenario planning: 'No Scenario Left Behind' Recently in Silicon Valley, PruVen Capital Managing Partner Ramneek Gupta shared the concept of 'no scenario left behind.' He and his colleagues have been studying advances in scenario planning and funding solutions that could enable business leaders to leverage advanced AI such as large language models (LLMs) and large geotemporal models (LGMs). LGMs use frameworks that analyze and reason across both time and space to exhaustively simulate virtually any and every event and scenario. These AI models provide dynamic risk modeling and real-time simulations for a vast array of business scenarios, allowing business leaders to address the inability to plan. WTW's Jessica Boyd and Cameron Rye explain in a recent article that advances in generative AI tools have enabled the rapid generation of numerous scenario narratives across a wide range of disciplines. These models accelerate the traditional, resource-heavy process of scenario development, streamlining the steps while introducing novel perspectives that might be missed by human analysts. They help overcome the limitations of human imagination that occur when people overlook or underestimate potential risks that have not yet happened in historical data. This can reduce potential blind spots that otherwise leave organizations vulnerable to highly disruptive events. Already, AI breakthroughs have enabled the next stage of scenario planning using advanced language models in areas such as weather forecasting, including hurricane landfall predictions, as well as political and economic modeling. These models provide the opportunity to expand beyond the traditional exploratory scenarios that most businesses currently use. For example, normative scenarios (similar to a reverse stress test) can add significant value when they are built around specific business objectives. Further, within the UK and Europe, new regulations focused on financial institutions have sparked considerable attention on scenario testing (in the U.K.: Operational Resilience 2025 and in the EU: Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)). These rules have further increased the importance of well-developed and defined scenarios, including scenario testing with third parties. How to start scenario planning and conducting an impact analysis Recently, WTW's Laura Kelly explained how scenario building and impact analysis have become a crucial part of business planning and risk management. She suggests three key steps in scenario planning and impact analysis: Effective leaders are not halted by uncertainty but rather mobilize around it. They identify the broad range of scenarios that might occur in a given set of circumstances, prioritize the greatest risks as well as the solutions that can mitigate these risks, and enable the company to thrive.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chinese Economy's Worst Month of 2025 Puts Stimulus Back in Play
(Bloomberg) -- China's economy clocked its deepest slowdown of the year in July, raising expectations for Beijing to roll out more stimulus this year to offset the impact of Donald Trump's trade war. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Festivals and Parades Are Canceled Amid US Immigration Anxiety To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Five Years After Black Lives Matter, Brussels' Colonial Statues Remain For Homeless Cyclists, Bikes Bring an Escape From the Streets A campaign to curb overcapacity at home is adding to the sting of higher tariffs. Fixed-asset investment fell the most since Covid erupted in early 2020, with industrial activity growth the weakest in eight months — a sign that a front-loading factory boom to get ahead of US duties of more than 50% is waning. Weaker spending on infrastructure and consumption was also a key culprit behind the slowdown, revealing the extent to which private demand remains frail. 'It does seem like the US tariffs are just starting to bite,' said Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Economics. 'Domestic demand is sluggish, but don't underestimate China's preparations for a protracted trade war. They have been holding back support measures to use for if and when exports really start to slow.' Taken together the data could give Trump's trade negotiators more leverage as they look to put pressure on President Xi Jinping's government, which is one of the last to hammer out a deal with the US. The American leader got his own economic warning this week, with wholesale inflation data showing companies now passing on tariff costs to consumers. While China is on track to hit its growth goal of about 5% after posting a 5.3% expansion in the first half, economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. and Commerzbank AG said it's likely only a matter of time before Beijing responds with greater stimulus. Bloomberg Economics expects the People's Bank of China to ease its policy further as soon as September. 'In the short-run, the cost of addressing overcapacity and deflation could be even weaker growth,' Rob Subbaraman, chief economist at Nomura, said in a note Friday. 'Beijing will very likely rush to roll out a new round of supportive measures in the second half.' This week, Trump extended a pause for elevated tariffs on Chinese goods for another three months, stabilizing trade ties but failing to lift the uncertainty over the world's two largest economies. For much of this year, China's exports have remained a bright spot despite a drop in shipments to the US after Trump raised tariffs. But a slowdown is creeping in for exports, with Pantheon estimating their growth in July slowed to 0.2% month on month, in seasonally adjusted terms, down from 0.4% in the previous month. The deceleration of economic growth in July was worse than expected and broad-based. Retail sales grew at the weakest pace since December, according to data published on Friday, while the property market deteriorated again. Fixed-asset investment fell around 5.3% in July from a year ago, the worst reading since the outbreak of Covid in January and February of 2020, according to economist estimates based on official data. Private companies, which have been reluctant to expand in recent years, reported the worst contraction in investment since September 2020 in the first seven months. Capital expenditure by manufacturers grew at the slowest pace in more than a year during the same period. National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui pointed to the 'continued impact of trade protectionism and unilateralism' and said extreme weather in some regions also put pressure on economic activities. What Bloomberg Economics Says... 'Such a rapid loss of momentum still points to deeper risks such as weak sentiment. We expect the government to step up stimulus. Indeed, the recent soft credit data may prompt the People's Bank of China to ease further as soon as September..' — Chang Shu and Eric Zhu. For full analysis, click here While Beijing has so far chosen to keep major stimulus in reserve for any slowdown ahead, authorities this week announced more modest measures such as a plan to subsidize part of the interest payments on some consumer loans. The PBOC last eased monetary policy in May, when it reduced interest rates and lowered the amount of cash lenders must keep in reserve. The government's existing fiscal stimulus provided less of a spark in July, as a temporary funding shortage curbed consumer subsidies while extreme weather likely delayed infrastructure construction. Further pressure also came from Beijing's crackdown on destructive price wars, as manufacturers responded to a call to rein in excessive factory production. Investment in sectors that include industries such as batteries and solar panels worsened significantly in July, according to Nomura, spanning industries where some of the most intense price wars continue to rage. Even so, in inflation-adjusted terms, the economy still expanded around 5% in July from a year ago, based on estimates from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Growth may rebound modestly in August as seasonal factors such as extreme weather pass. Looking ahead to September, Morgan Stanley analysts said the economy is on track to worsen once more from the payback of earlier export front-loading and declining impact of consumer subsidies. 'Economic activity in the first half exceeded expectations, driven by the front-loading of exports and transshipments,' said Carlos Casanova, senior Asia economist at Union Bancaire Privee in Hong Kong. 'However, the second half is likely to reflect a more tempered reality.' 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