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Bank Indonesia has stepped up intervention this year and last month began intervening in the offshore non-deliverable forwards marketPublished Thu, May 8, 2025 · 01:08 PM[JAKARTA] Indonesia’s foreign-exchange reserves saw the biggest drop in nearly two years after the central bank ramped up market intervention to cushion the sliding rupiah last month.The stockpile fell by US$4.6 billion to US$152.5 billion in April, Bank Indonesia (BI) said on Thursday (May 8). The decline, the biggest since May 2023, was due to the government’s external debt payments and the central bank’s rupiah stabilisation measures as the global market was roiled by the…

If you spend a lot of time outdoors and away from mobile reception, the odds are you have some form of emergency beacon. There’s plenty out there, largely falling under the banner of an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that can send SOS signals in the event your day goes really badly. It’s good to know you can signal for help if needed…What about quickly checking in to let your family and friends know you’re ok? For the last month, I’ve had an HMD Offgrid in my bag, and it’s been a game changer, particularly in emergency response situations.…

FRANKFURT :German chipmaker Infineon Technologies reported stable order intake on Thursday but lowered its full-year revenue outlook due to uncertainty over global tariff disputes.U.S. President Donald Trump has said tariffs on semiconductor chips would start at “25 per cent, or higher,” rising substantially over the course of a year, but has not specified when these would come into effect, putting chipmakers in limbo.”Given that order intake still shows no signs at all of slowing down, we can only guesstimate the effects of tariff disputes,” CEO Jochen Hanebeck said in a statement.He added the company had applied a haircut of 10…

Published Thu, May 8, 2025 · 05:30 PM[SINGAPORE] Former Singapore ambassador to the US warned there’s no roadmap to improve ties between the US and China as the two square off over everything from trade to Taiwan.Any US leader “would want to see America dominant, so there will be this contest,” Chan Heng Chee, currently Ambassador-at-Large with Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and formerly ambassador to the US between 1996 and 2012, said in an interview with Haslinda Amin at Bloomberg’s New Voices event in Singapore. “There will be a clash head to head.”At the same time, “I would not…

There is no product category that better embodies the XKCD take on standards than smart home. With an ocean of connectivity options and incompatible standards, taming this mess has been challenging, but Matter could finally have a shot at making things a little less frustrating. The latest version of the standard has launched, offering multiple ways to streamline the usually aggravating setup process. The first public release of Matter was in late 2022, but compatible systems didn’t get support until the following year. Now, there are Matter-certified devices like smart bulbs and sensors that will talk to Apple, Google, Amazon,…

A screen displays a graph for the CSI 300 Index at a Citic Securities Co. branch in Beijing, China, on Thursday, April 10, 2025. Na Bian | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChina’s latest push to revive growth with broader stimulus measures has failed to cheer its stock market as worries over economic deterioration outweigh policy optimism, with investors focused on trade talks with the U.S.The scope of the stimulus package, including interest rate cuts and a major liquidity injection, drew some comparisons to a sweeping policy rollout last September that had fueled a market rally, lifting the CSI 300 index over…

[SINGAPORE] Asian currencies have rallied against the US dollar on the back of concerns that US President Donald Trump’s tariff war will hurt the world’s largest economy. But market watchers warn that the Singapore dollar’s strength against the greenback could cut both ways for companies here.This week, the Singapore dollar rose to trade at above 1.29 against the greenback for the first time since September 2024. In the year to date up to May 7, the Singapore currency has appreciated about 5.4 per cent against the US dollar.This would typically be positive for Singapore companies with major expenditures priced in…

The Vtoman FlashSpeed 1000 Power Station is a portable battery that can keep off-grid campers happy for a weekend — and works great as a UPS for your Mac Studio too. We get asked to review three main categories of products. Two of them make sense for an Apple-related publication: Thunderbolt docks and SSDs. The third is giant batteries in portable power stations. If you think about it, though, it makes sense. We’re in the annual spring terrible weather cycle, as evidenced by my own over the last few days that brought green skies, hail, and tornadoes to where I’m living. For folks…

On the politics, this is a win for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves. And a big one: just at the point he really needed it after terrible local elections and few signs the economy is going the right way.For months, the prime minister has been doubling down on a chunky bet – that there were more benefits than costs to hug close Donald Trump, the most technicolour, unpredictable and contentious political figure of the modern era. There have been moments when this gambit felt like a mistake, when tariffs were first imposed and not subsequently reduced…

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s central bank kept its key interest rate steady at 3 per cent on Thursday (May 8), opting for policy stability amid resilient domestic demand and a better-than-expected rebound in industrial activity, even as clouds gather over global trade due to rising US tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Bank Negara Malaysia said the decision to maintain the overnight policy rate (OPR) was supported by continued global growth and trade activity, alongside firm domestic demand and front-loading of exports ahead of potential tariff changes.“At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and…