Markets

China's smartphone sales may plunge by as much as 50per cent in the first quarter, as many retail shops have closed for an extended period and production has yet to fully resume due to the fast spread of a new coronavirus, according to research reports.

Researcher TrendForce said on Monday it expected global smartphone production to fall by 12per cent to its lowest level in five years in the first three months of 2020 because a virus outbreak in China.

General Motors said on Monday it would restart production in from Feb. 15 in China, where the country is dealing with a coronavirus epidemic which has killed more than 900 people.

YOUNGER customers and higher-income individuals are keen to open a digital bank account in Singapore, even as two in five of overall respondents indicated that they would only consider doing so if the digital bank is “popular and successful”.

Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems Ltd said on Monday it won contracts worth US$136 million to provide customers in Asia-Pacific with airborne laser direct infrared countermeasure (DIRCM) systems.

Gathered in a German mountain castle last November for an evening retreat that ended with a whiskey-tasting, rebel European Central Bank policymakers and Christine Lagarde, their newly confirmed president, made a pact.  

SINGAPORE: In the latest twist to Hyflux’s high-profile debt restructuring, the company said its non-executive independent director Simon Tay has resigned voluntarily with effect on Friday (Feb 7) due to an “inability to fulfill his duties”. This was announced by the company in a bourse filing on ...

Japanese antitrust officials raided the offices of e-commerce company Rakuten Inc on Monday after complaints from online merchants about the company's free shipping policies, prompting its shares to briefly fall by as much as 3per cent.

WASHINGTON: A new probe built by NASA and the European Space Agency set off on a blazing hot journey to the sun on Sunday to take the first close-up look at the star's polar regions, a mission expected to yield insight into how solar radiant energy affects Earth. The...

An Australian antitrust investigator who helped bring criminal cartel charges against Citigroup Inc and Deutsche Bank AG denied acting with "impropriety" when presented with communications between the regulator and informants' lawyers.