What signals should market cryptologists be looking at? One measure is exports of semiconductors from South Korea, says Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia at Natixis, an investment bank, who is based in Hong Kong. South Korea is pivotal to Asia’s supply chain, she says, and its shipments of semiconductors help predict exports in the region more generally. After a brutal 2019 the trend has bottomed out and is turning (see chart). Another signal is the financial health of big Asian chip companies, such as Samsung and SK Hynix. Those averse to digging deep into financial statements could simply monitor industry share prices. Or they could look for inflection points in the price of DRAM, a type of memory chip used to store data on servers and computers.
Economy
What the semiconductor industry tells us about the world economy – The Economist
THE SETTING for Robert Harris’s thriller, “Enigma”, is wartime Britain, where everything is rationed except for the rain. It follows Tom Jericho, a young prodigy stationed at Bletchley Park, the real-life centre of code-breaking operations, who is part of a team of cryptologists trying to break the code used by Germany’s armed forces. The work has frustration built in. Any progress can be undone if the enemy changes the code—which he will if he suspects that it has been cracked.
The novel comes to mind when considering the mysteries of shifts in the economic cycle and market reactions. The mood has clearly changed for the better since the middle of last year. Fears of recession have receded. Global equity prices have rallied. Bond yields have perked up. A truce in the trade war, however fragile, has helped. But the improvement in mood coincided with signs of life in Asia’s manufacturing hubs.
The key to these coded messages is the semiconductor industry. Cars, smartphones, gadgets and cloud-computing servers rely on components, notably memory chips, that are disproportionately made in emerging Asia. The mood-sensitive parts of aggregate demand—capital spending by firms and non-essential purchases by consumers—have microchips in there somewhere. The chip industry itself has savage mini-cycles. When it turns down, it is a sign of trouble ahead in the world economy. When it perks up, as it has done recently, there is reason to be more optimistic.
The cost structure of the chip business is central to this enigma. A semiconductor fabrication plant, or fab, costs billions of dollars to build. A sudden jump in orders, such as occurred in 2017, is met with increased capacity. But when demand falls, the fabs just keep producing. They are highly automated with few staff, so running costs are low. Continuous output makes sense but leads to occasional gluts and sagging prices, as happened through most of last year. Stocks become bloated. When demand picks up again, as it did late last year, stocks are drawn down and prices begin to stabilise.
Until quite recently the industry’s rhythms, and the tautness or slackness of Asia’s supply chains in general, were dictated by the two- or three-year life-cycle of smartphones. Export orders for Taiwanese electronics, for instance, tended to spike whenever a new Apple or Galaxy handset was launched. But the smartphone market is now saturated. Consumers find that an old model works almost as well as a newer one—and this might still be the case even when the new 5G generation of phones reaches the market. What drives growth in demand now is cloud computing, electrification of cars, wearable gadgetry and gaming, says Shawn Kim of Morgan Stanley. The cloud is a particular force. As firms ramp up capital spending of all kinds, that in turn spurs investment in cloud capacity, where business-related software lives.
Technology’s share of global GDP will continue to grow. In principle, then, these signals will become even more closely watched. But other forces are at work. China has designs to be self-sufficient in electronic components, a goal made more urgent by the trade-tech wars. The short-term effect is to give a boost to Asia’s tech industry. But in the longer term, firms might find themselves displaced by Chinese rivals, at least in China’s own market.
To the extent that China succeeds, it will devalue the signals that arrive from the more open parts of emerging Asia. Market-watchers will come to feel the same frustration felt by Mr Harris’s fictional codebreakers at Bletchley. The codes keep changing. For now, though, the message from Asia is that the sun is peeking through the clouds—or, at least, that it has stopped raining.
This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline “What the semiconductor industry tells us about the world economy”
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – Canada’s inflation rate fell to two per cent last month, finally hitting the Bank of Canada’s target after a tumultuous battle with skyrocketing price growth.
The annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021.
Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report on Tuesday attributed the slowdown in part to lower gasoline prices.
Clothing and footwear prices also decreased on a month-over-month basis, marking the first decline in the month of August since 1971 as retailers offered larger discounts to entice shoppers amid slowing demand.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures of inflation, which strip out volatility in prices, also edged down in August.
The marked slowdown in price growth last month was steeper than the 2.1 per cent annual increase forecasters were expecting ahead of Tuesday’s release and will likely spark speculation of a larger interest rate cut next month from the Bank of Canada.
“Inflation remains unthreatening and the Bank of Canada should now focus on trying to stimulate the economy and halting the upward climb in the unemployment rate,” wrote CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.
Benjamin Reitzes, managing director of Canadian rates and macro strategist at BMO, said Tuesday’s figures “tilt the scales” slightly in favour of more aggressive cuts, though he noted the Bank of Canada will have one more inflation reading before its October rate announcement.
“If we get another big downside surprise, calls for a 50 basis-point cut will only grow louder,” wrote Reitzes in a client note.
The central bank began rapidly hiking interest rates in March 2022 in response to runaway inflation, which peaked at a whopping 8.1 per cent that summer.
The central bank increased its key lending rate to five per cent and held it at that level until June 2024, when it delivered its first rate cut in four years.
A combination of recovered global supply chains and high interest rates have helped cool price growth in Canada and around the world.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem recently signalled that the central bank is ready to increase the size of its interest rate cuts, if inflation or the economy slow by more than expected.
Its key lending rate currently stands at 4.25 per cent.
CIBC is forecasting the central bank will cut its key rate by two percentage points between now and the middle of next year.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected on Wednesday to deliver its first interest rate cut in four years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Tampa Bay Lightning select Victor Hedman as captain, succeeding Steven Stamkos
Toronto FC Jason Hernandez looks to clean up salary cap and open up the future
Canada’s Hughes may be what International team has been missing at Presidents Cup
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
AP source: Bears acquiring quarterback Nick Foles from Jaguars – Sportsnet.ca
dynaCERT Inc. Invites You to Join Us at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference | INN – Investing News Network
-
Sports15 hours agoEdler to sign one-day contract to retire as a Vancouver Canuck
-
Sports22 hours agoSixth-ranked Canadian women to face World Cup champion Spain in October friendly
-
News15 hours agoBillie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal
-
News22 hours agoReport charts path for Canada to show importance to United States
-
News15 hours agoAccount tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says
-
Politics20 hours agoReview finds no case for formal probe of Beijing’s activities under elections law
-
News14 hours agoLangford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays
-
News22 hours agoSurrey, B.C., ER doctors call for ‘new leadership’ amid ‘toxic’ work environment
