Author: News Room

By Sam Nussey, Fanny Potkin and Miho Uranaka TOKYO (Reuters) – Taiwan’s TSMC is looking at building advanced packaging capacity in Japan, according to two sources familiar with the matter, a move that would add momentum to Japan’s efforts to reboot its semiconductor industry. The deliberations are at an early stage, they added, declining to be identified as the information was not public. One option the chipmaking giant is considering is bringing its chip on wafer on substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to Japan, according to one of the sources who was briefed on the matter. CoWoS is a high-precision technology…

Investing.com– Oil prices moved little in Asian trade on Monday after a strong run-up over the past week, with traders now hunkering down before a string of key central bank meetings this week helmed by the Federal Reserve. The prospect of tighter global supplies pushed oil prices to four-month highs last week, following signs of strong U.S. refinery demand and positive forecasts from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Administration.  Crude prices hovered around these highs on Monday. expiring in May rose 0.1% to $85.41 a barrel, while rose 0.2% to $80.72 a barrel by 20:39…

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. TikTok is now facing a ban in the United States, a fate that has already befallen a string of American social media giants that tried to make it in China. On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill which could ban TikTok in the country if its Chinese owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the app to an entity that satisfies the US government. “The bill passed by the US House of Representatives puts the…

Australian Dollar receives downward pressure ahead of policy decisions from the Fed and RBA. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index tracks softer commodity prices. US Dollar gains strength as expectations mount for the Fed prolonging elevated interest rates. The Australian Dollar (AUD) kicks off the week with a negative bias of continuing its winning streak for the third successive session. The AUD/USD pair is under downward pressure, likely attributed to market caution ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) policy decision scheduled for Tuesday. Additionally, investors are awaiting interest rate decisions from both the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the…

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt Despite a drop in crypto prices set off by discouraging inflation figures, Crypto Twitter managed to have quite a lot of fun this week, inspired by reasons ranging from genuine technological progress to good old-fashioned schadenfreude. On Wednesday, Ethereum’s much-anticipated Dencun upgrade went live, substantially lowering transaction costs across Ethereum layer-2 networks via a novel data storage method called blobs, which developers say could soon make gas fees a thing of the past. Dencun went live, we’ve had blobs land in blocks on mainnet .oO 🎉 — timbeiko.eth ☀️ (@TimBeiko) March 13, 2024 In…

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A critical US partner in northwest Africa is turning toward Russia amid warnings from the top US commander in the continent that the Russians are trying to “take over” the entire Sahel region of Africa. Niger, which has served as a crucial foothold for US counterterrorism operations in the region for nearly a decade, announced Saturday that it was ending the accord that has allowed US military personnel and civilian staff to operate in the country since 2014. The announcement came days after a tense meeting between Niger’s military junta, which seized power in a July 2023 coup, and US diplomatic…

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Topline A U.S. intelligence agency has contracted SpaceX to develop a network of spy satellites in a deal worth $1.8 billion, Reuters reported, seemingly confirming reports suggesting billionaire Elon Musk’s company is becoming more involved with the U.S. government and amid speculation SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are being used illegally by Russia in its war with Ukraine. Key Facts The National Reconnaissance Office agreed to a contract with SpaceX’s Starshield program in 2021 to develop hundreds of spy satellites for the agency, Reuters reported Saturday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the program. The satellites will have Earth-imaging capabilities and will be…

By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares idled and the dollar held firm on Monday as investors looked to navigate a minefield of central bank meetings this week that could see the end of free money in Japan and perhaps a slower glide path for U.S. rate cuts. Central banks in the United States, Japan, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and Mexico all meet and, while most are expected to hold steady, there is plenty of scope for surprises. Tuesday could see the end of an era as the Bank of Japan is now widely tipped to end eight…