The Korea Herald

U.S. overtakes EU as top export market for China

BEIJING (AFP) ― China said Tuesday that the United States has overtaken the European Union as its biggest export market, as the continent’s debt crisis has sent demand slumping.“The biggest is the U.S. and the EU is second,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters at a regular briefing. “The EU used to be the biggest.” China’s exports to the United States in the first 10 months of this year totaled $289.3 billion, while shipments to the EU came to $276.8 billion, according to Chi

Nov. 20, 2012

U.S. overtakes EU as top export market for China

Intel CEO to retire in surprise move

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Intel CEO Paul Otellini dropped a bombshell on the company’s board of directors last week, telling them in private that he plans to retire from the world’s largest maker of microprocessors in May. Otellini’s move comes at a time when Intel faces a shaky economy and a mobile gadget craze that is eating away at demand for its PC chips ―and it gives the company just six months to find a new leader. Intel’s board expected the 62-year-old Otellini to remain chief executive until

Nov. 20, 2012

BOJ keeps key rates unchanged

TOKYO (AFP) ― The Bank of Japan held off launching fresh easing measures on Tuesday after wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, despite growing calls for further stimulus to spur the world’s third-largest economy.The decision came days after the frontrunner to become Japan’s next prime minister vowed aggressive monetary easing to fix the nation’s economic woes. The bank also kept interest rates unchanged at between zero and 0.1 percent.However, the BOJ said Japan’s economy “has been weakening so

Nov. 20, 2012

5 U.S. banks have cut loan balances by $6.3b

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Five of the biggest U.S. banks have cut struggling homeowners’ mortgage balances by $6.3 billion, part of a total $26.1 billion in home loan relief provided under a landmark settlement over foreclosure abuses.More than 309,000 borrowers received some form of mortgage relief between March 1 and Sept. 30, according to a report issued Monday by Joseph Smith, monitor of the settlement.That translates to roughly $84,385 per homeowner, according to the report, which is based on mort

Nov. 20, 2012

5 U.S. banks have cut loan balances by $6.3b

Moody’s slashes top French rating

PARIS (AFP) ― France came under fresh economic pressure late Monday as the international ratings agency Moody’s cut the French government bond rating by one notch from the highest level to “Aa1” and warned that an additional downgrade was possible.Moody’s was the second of the three major ratings agency to cut France’s top rating, after Standard and Poor’s did so in January. Fitch has maintained its assessment of French debt so far.In keeping France on a negative outlook, Moody’s signaled that i

Nov. 20, 2012

Germany earns 3 billion euros From EU phase 2 carbon sales

Germany sold its last European Union carbon permits for immediate delivery in the bloc's second phase, completing three years of sales that earned the nation almost 3 billion euros ($3.84 billion).Europe's largest economy today sold 868,000 permits at 6.56 euros a metric ton on the European Energy Exchange AG. EEX has hosted 269 German sales of a total 129 million tons starting in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In 2008 and 2009, the country sold 80 million permits through its sta

Nov. 20, 2012

Moody's downgrades France 1 notch on weak growth

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded France's government bond rating, citing the country's weak economic growth outlook and its exposure to Europe's economic crisis.The rating agency lowered France's rating one notch on Monday from Aaa _ its top rating _ to Aa1. The outlook for the rating remains negative, meaning it could face future downgrades.Moody's says France's long-term growth outlook is slowing and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict how resilient it will be to futu

Nov. 20, 2012

Subaru trumps Toyota as market rewards China shutout

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga has become a market darling for something he failed to do: build a factory in China. The maker of Subaru cars, the only major Japanese auto brand without a plant in the world’s largest vehicle market, has jumped 83 percent in Tokyo trading this year for the biggest gain on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. Fuji Heavy’s smaller presence in China has helped shield it from a consumer backlash triggered by a territorial dispute between Asia’s two l

Nov. 19, 2012

Subaru trumps Toyota as market rewards China shutout

Jaguar Land Rover-Chery to invest $1.75 billion in China plant

Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar Land Rover unit and Chery Automobile Co. will invest 10.9 billion yuan ($1.75 billion) to build a manufacturing plant in eastern China and create a new brand to cater to the nation’s consumers. The 50:50 venture will also set up a research and development center and construct an engine plant as part of the investment, according to a statement by Jaguar Land Rover. The company didn’t say in its release which models will be built at the new factory, targeted for completio

Nov. 19, 2012

Jaguar Land Rover-Chery to invest $1.75 billion in China plant

Twinkies likely to survive sale of Hostess

DETROIT (AP) ― Twinkie lovers, relax.The tasty cream-filled golden spongecakes are likely to survive, even though their maker will be sold in bankruptcy court.Hostess Brands Inc., baker of Wonder Bread as well as Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Ho’s, will be in a New York bankruptcy courtroom Monday to start the process of selling itself.The company, weighed down by debt, management turmoil, rising labor costs and the changing tastes of America, decided on Friday that it no longer could make it thro

Nov. 19, 2012

Twinkies likely to survive sale of Hostess

SE Asia will be less export dependent

Southeast Asia’s growth will remain resilient over the next five years as stronger investment and private consumption reduce dependence on exports for expansion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and a slowdown in advanced economies have had a “limited” impact on Southeast Asian nations with most of the effect experienced through trade, the Paris-based OECD said in a report released in Phnom Penh Sunday. The region, along with China, m

Nov. 19, 2012

Large rally protests Spain’s health care austerity

MADRID (AP) ― Spaniards angered by austerity measures, including budget cuts and plans to partly privatize some of their country’s cherished national health service, held a rally Sunday in downtown Madrid.About 10,000 people, including health workers dressed in clinical white and blue, marched from four large hospitals on the outskirts of Madrid to central Puerta del Sol square behind banners saying, “Our public health service is not for sale, it’s to be defended.”Some protesters said they were

Nov. 19, 2012

Fiscal cliff negotiators face high hurdles

WASHINGTON (AP) ― It’s entirely possible that lawmakers and the White House will reach a deal that staves off an avalanche of tax increases and deep cuts in government programs before a Jan. 1 deadline. To do so, however, they’ll have to resolve deep political and fiscal disagreements that have stymied them time after time despite repeated promises to overcome them.For many economists, corporate leaders and politicians, it’s unconscionable to let the government veer over the “fiscal cliff,’’ whi

Nov. 19, 2012

Shadow banking grows to $67tr industry

The shadow banking industry has grown to about $67 trillion, $6 trillion bigger than previously thought, leading global regulators to seek more oversight of financial transactions that fall outside traditional oversight. The size of the shadow banking system, which includes the activities of money market funds, monoline insurers and off- balance sheet investment vehicles, “can create systemic risks” and “amplify market reactions when market liquidity is scarce,” the Financial Stability Board sai

Nov. 19, 2012

‘Greece to need aid beyond 2014’

BERLIN (AP) ― Greece will need yet more international financial assistance beyond the agreed bailout programs through 2014, a European Central Bank board member said Sunday. The government in Athens probably won’t be able to return to finance its debt on financial markets in 2015 and 2016, thus requiring another assistance program, Joerg Asmussen told German public broadcaster ZDF.Many of Greece’s partners in the 17-nation eurozone loathe granting Greece yet more funds and more long-term assista

Nov. 19, 2012

China 'optimistic' about FTA talks with Japan, S. Korea

China, Japan, and South Korea are expected to agree on the launch of three-way free trade talks at a summit in the Cambodian capital this week, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday."I am optimistic the three parties can reach a consensus to commence the negotiations," Qin Gang told reporters in Phnom Penh where leaders of the three nations will attend an East Asia Summit from Monday.Qin said trade ministers were likely to hold a trilateral meeting on the matter on the sidelines of th

Nov. 19, 2012

JPMorgan, Credit Suisse paying $417m in SEC case

WASHINGTON (AP) ― JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay a combined $417 million to settle federal civil charges that they sold risky mortgage bonds to investors ahead of the 2008 financial crisis that the banks knew could fail. JPMorgan did not warn investors that homeowners were behind on their payments for the mortgages tied to the bonds, The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday. And both banks failed to properly disclose their practices that allowed them to profit whil

Nov. 18, 2012

Lagarde to defend IMF credibility in euro-area talks on Greece

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she’ll defend the IMF’s credibility in talks on Greece this week, signalling a potential clash with euro finance chiefs over Greek debt sustainability. Lagarde cut short a visit to Southeast Asia yesterday to return to Europe for a meeting with euro-region finance ministers in Brussels on Nov. 20. With the two sides deadlocked over the timeline for reducing Greek debt levels, Lagarde said she was approaching the talks feeling “

Nov. 18, 2012

Lagarde to defend IMF credibility in euro-area talks on Greece

Spain's Rajoy rejects proposed 75-bn-euro EU budget cut

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday rejected as "unacceptable" a proposal from EU President Herman Van Rompuy to cut the bloc's 2014-2020 budget by 75 billion euros ($95 billion)."The government does not like this budget and we have made that known to the (European) institutions and we hope that there will be another proposal that will be more reasonable," Rajoy said.Rajoy said Spain objected to Van Rompuy's proposed spending cuts to agriculture funding, money for Spain's regions an

Nov. 18, 2012

BP agrees to pay $4.5b as 3 employees charged

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ― A day of reckoning arrived for BP on Thursday as the oil giant agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the deadly Gulf of Mexico spill and pay a record $4.5 billion, including the biggest criminal fine in U.S. history. Three BP employees were also charged, two of them with manslaughter. The settlement with the federal government came 2½ years after the fiery drilling-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the nation’s largest offshore oil spill. In announcing

Nov. 16, 2012

BP agrees to pay $4.5b as 3 employees charged