Flailing Oil Prices May Prompt Boost In Oil Supply
Oil prices fell in early trade today after a recent rally, as profit-taking and expectations of supply increases by Russia and Saudi Arabia outweighed forecasts of positive demand from China during its Golden Week holiday.
Yen Still Under Intervention Watch
The dollar held off a 10-month high today as markets head into the end of the quarter, giving the yen slightly more breathing room at the end of the week amid intervention concerns. However, the euro largely held its ground after rebounding overnight.
U.S. GDP Unrevised As Market Remains Resilient
The U.S. economy maintained a fairly solid pace of growth in the second quarter and activity appears to have accelerated this quarter, but a looming government shutdown and an ongoing strike by auto workers are dimming the outlook for the rest of 2023.
Today’s News
Export controls have not hindered China’s progress from developing surprisingly advanced semiconductors for smartphones. On the contrary, this has encouraged innovation within the world’s second largest economy, making greater leaps in the chip-making industry.
This feat has also increased the American anxieties about the country’s military capabilities amid significant uncertainty.
Within the realm of gadgets, everything about Huawei’s release of its Mate 60 Pro smartphone in late August was unusual. Instead of talking up the device in a splashy marketing event, the company quietly started selling the flagship model online.
Huawei did not even reveal several key technical specifications, yet burned through its inventory within hours of its release. Within China, this inspired a wave of patriotic celebration.
The debut is easier to understand if the Mate 60 Pro is seen less as a mobile device and more as a message from one global superpower to another. Huawei Technologies Co. has been at the center of U.S.’ attempts to undercut Chinese tech development for years. In 2019 the Trump administration added the company to the so-called Entity List, curtailing its access to U.S. technology and effectively destroying its huge smartphone business at the time.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations have since cranked up the pressure on China’s tech industry, most recently with export controls that the U.S. Department of Commerce outlined in October 2022. The Mate 60 Pro went on sale just as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was visiting China, inspiring memes there such as an image of her giving the phone a thumbs-up with the caption, “Brand Ambassador of Huawei.”
Other related news include:
Huawei’s Little Secret Exposed With 5G Support
Huawei Technologies Co.’s Kirin 9000s processor supports 5G wireless speeds, TechInsights said, exposing the mystery that shrouded the Chinese company’s latest line of devices.
The Mate 60 smartphone series powered by that Kirin chip sold more than 300,000 units in its first two weeks on sale in China, according to Counterpoint Research data. It was second on China’s sales charts the week before Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone launch, riding a wave of patriotism and excitement around its advanced made-in-China processor.
U.S. Disregards China’s Chip Production Capabilities
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was displeased when China’s Huawei Technologies Co. released a new phone with an advanced chip during her visit to the country last month but noted that the U.S. has no evidence China can make those components “at scale”.
“We are trying to use every single tool at our disposal to deny the Chinese the ability to advance their technology in ways that can hurt us,” Raimondo testified at a congressional hearing.
U.S. Shackles Shattered With Chip Breakthrough
Huawei Technologies Co. and China’s top chipmaker have made a major breakthrough with an advanced 7-nanometer processor to power its latest smartphone, a sign that Beijing is making early progress in a nationwide push to circumvent U.S. efforts to contain its ascend.
Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro is powered by the all-new Kirin 9000s chip that was fabricated in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., according to a teardown of the handset that TechInsights conducted. The processor is the first to utilize SMIC’s most advanced 7nm technology and suggests the Chinese government is making some headway in attempts to build a domestic chip ecosystem, according to the research firm.
