Last night and this morning, the world's largest companies | Ali Chairman Joe Tsai sells part of the NBA Nets; Amazon has created a shopping zone to connect with Chinese sellers and Western buyers

Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai sells a stake in the NBA Nets. Amazon plans to create a shopping zone to connect Chinese sellers with Western buyers. Toyota will sell its stake in Aisin Seiki. Saudi Aramco's oil and gas reserves are larger than those of the six international energy giants combined. Nike, H&M, Levi's, and WBA announced their results. Alibaba's chairman, Joe Tsai, has sold his stake in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets to the Koch family, who valued the Nets at $5.8 billion for $688 million. Tsai's "cutting love" of part of the Nets' stake may be to invest more energy in Alibaba to cope with the current challenges and fierce competition. In 2018, Tsai Chongxin bought a 49% stake in the Nets, and in September 2019, he bought the remaining 51% of the Nets' shares, becoming the sole controller of the team. Tsai also spent $700 million to take over the Barclays Center, home of the Nets. In the two acquisitions of the team and the home stadium, Tsai invested a total of about $3.05 billion.

Amazon plans to create a shopping zone that connects customers directly with cheaper items in warehouses in China in response to market competition. The new online zone catalogue will include unbranded fashion, homewares and other items that can be delivered directly from Chinese sellers to Western buyers within 9 to 11 days. Amazon presented the idea to a group of Chinese sellers at a recent closed-door meeting. The new discount shopping area is expected to begin accepting inventory as early as this fall.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that the time is ripe for the next wave of artificial intelligence in a $50 trillion heavy industry, fueled by the company's advanced chips. Huang said AI has permeated many industries, from technology to healthcare. But he also noted that there are more avenues for growth in larger areas of the global economy where AI has not yet been widely adopted.

YouTube is in talks with record labels to license the songs owned by the latter to be used as an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to clone music from pop artists. The move signals YouTube's hope that it will win over the skeptical industry with an upfront payment. The video site recently offered to pay large sums of cash to big record labels such as Sony and Warner, in an attempt to convince more artists to allow their music to be used to train AI software. The video site, which is owned by Google, needs record label content to legally train AI song generators. It is ready to launch new tools this year.

Nokia said on Thursday that it had agreed to sell its submarine network business, ASN, to the French government for 350 million euros, but that the deal would not affect its financial outlook. Nokia said it expects the divestiture to reduce sales of its network infrastructure business unit by 1 billion euros.

The Japanese government will begin construction of a 5G communication network in the Philippines. The base station will be installed after the summer of 2024, with the goal of putting it into practical use within a few years. There are also plans to expand this initiative to other countries in the Indo-Pacific region. From the perspective of the global share of 5G base stations, China's Huawei accounts for about 3 percent, and ZTE accounts for 1 percent. Japan will step up support for Southeast Asia to "wean itself off China" for its communications infrastructure.

Sharp announced on June 26 that Vice President Masahiro Okitsu was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on June 27. The current president and CEO, Mr. Oh Baek-hoon, will serve as a representative director. The appointment will be formally approved by the Board of Directors at a meeting to be held after the shareholders' meeting on June 27. Wu Baixun became president of Sharp in 2022, and he is the second president from Hon Hai after Dai Zhengwu, and he has only held the position of president for two years. During the two years that Wu Baixun served as the president of Sharp, the performance of Sharp's LCD panel business deteriorated again due to intensified competition with overseas panel giants. In 2016, Sharp was incorporated into Hon Hai Precision Industries.

Toyota Motor will sell its stake in AISIN, a major auto parts supplier, in the latest sign that Japan's momentum toward major companies to eliminate cross-shareholdings is building. Toyota Group companies DENSO and Toyota Industries also plan to sell their shares in Aisin, with the actual price to be determined as early as July 8, according to a statement on Thursday. Japan's two largest banks have also previously revealed plans to divest their strategic stakes worth 1.32 trillion yen in Toyota.

Toyota Motor Corporation announced on March 27 that its global production in May was 812191 units, down 4.1% from the same period last year. Toyota's global production declined for the fourth consecutive month, and overseas production decreased due to factors such as intensified price competition in China. Global sales increased by 0.3% to 840681 units, unchanged from the previous year. Overseas production was down 7.0% to 556877 units. Regionally, North American production increased by 0.8% to 192571 units, while production in China decreased significantly by 21.7% to 111014 units. Overseas sales rose 2.4% to 738,610 units, the highest monthly sales in May.

Boeing on Wednesday refuted claims that two NASA astronauts were "stranded" on the International Space Station because the company's Starliner spacecraft had problems with its long-delayed first manned flight. NASA and Boeing decided last week to push back the spacecraft again, docking with the International Space Station on June 6 and returning to an unspecified date in July. Boeing insists it is not a failure.

Large U.S. banks passed their latest annual stress tests, and the Federal Reserve found that in the face of a severe recession, these banks were able to continue lending to households and businesses even if they suffered larger losses than they tested last year. This year's test measures the ability of the 31 largest banks to maintain strong capital levels amid a hypothetical recession with double-digit unemployment and a severe decline in the stock market. The big U.S. banks can withstand the worst recession and sustain losses of $685 billion.

Visa's 2024 Digital Remittance Report shows that demand for remittances in China remains strong, with half of Chinese respondents saying they have cross-border remittance needs in the next 12 months. Remittance users in China use cross-border remittance services more frequently, with the majority of respondents sending money at least once a year. Respondents who sent overseas remittances said that supporting their children's overseas education was one of the main reasons for remittance. The main markets for Chinese cross-border remittance users are Singapore, Canada, Japan, Australia, France and the United States.

The global LNG report released by IGU found that global LNG trade increased by 2.1% in 2023, totaling more than 401 million tons. And supply is the main factor limiting growth at the moment. LNG exports are dominated by the United States, which has become the largest producer and exporter, followed by Australia, Qatar and Russia. In 2023, China is once again the largest importer of LNG, with Japan and South Korea remaining in second and third place despite declining annual imports, and India returning to fourth place.

Middle Eastern oil giant Saudi Aramco continues to lead the world in proven reserves, about 15 times larger than second-ranked ExxonMobil. In 2022, the world's oil and gas reserves were about 1.56 trillion oil equivalent, of which Saudi Aramco was about 259 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Saudi Aramco has more reserves than the next six international energy giants combined, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Shell, BP and Eni.

BP's new chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, has frozen hiring (except for frontline and security personnel) and suspended new offshore wind projects amid investor dissatisfaction with BP's energy transition strategy. These moves are part of Auchincloss's decision to slow investment in large-budget low-carbon projects, particularly offshore wind projects, which are not expected to generate cash for many years. The company is also expected to lay off workers in the renewable energy sector, but no specific targets have been given. In addition, BP has prioritized investments and even acquisitions of new oil and gas assets, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. onshore shale basins, where BP already has significant operations.

KPS Capital Partners announced that it has signed an agreement for its portfolio company, Eviosys, to sell the company to Sonoco Products Company, a global leader in high-value sustainable packaging, for €3.615 billion. Eviosys is a leading global supplier of metal packaging for food cans and caps, aerosol cans, metal caps, and promotional packaging, with more than 6,300 employees and 44 manufacturing sites in 17 countries

Financial Reporting Information

Swedish fashion retailer H&M Group (Hennes & Mauritz AB) announced results for its fiscal second quarter ended May 31, 2024. Net sales for the quarter amounted to SEK 59,605 million, compared to SEK 57,616 million in the prior-year quarter. Operating profit for the quarter was SEK 7,098 million, compared to SEK 4,741 million in the prior-year quarter. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company for the quarter was SEK 5,008 million, compared to SEK 3,296 million in the prior-year quarter.

NIKE, Inc. Announced results for the fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended May 31, 2024. Fourth-quarter revenue was $12,606 million, compared to $12,825 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $1.5 billion, compared to $1.031 billion in the year-ago quarter. Among them, the quarterly revenue in Greater China was 1.863 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3%. Revenue for the fiscal year was $51.362 billion, compared to $51.217 billion in the previous fiscal year. Net income for the fiscal year was $5.7 billion, compared to $5.07 billion in the previous fiscal year. Among them, the revenue of Greater China in the fiscal year was 7.545 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 8%.

Levi Strauss & Co., the parent company of U.S. jeans brand Levi's, announced results for the fiscal second quarter ended May 26, 2024. Net revenue for the quarter was $1,441 million, compared to $1,337 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $18 million, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. Announced results for the fiscal third quarter ended May 31, 2024. Quarterly sales were $36,351 million, compared to $35,415 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $344 million, compared to $118 million for the year-ago quarter.

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