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16 INTERNATIONAL OMANDAILYOBSERVER BUSINESS SATURDAY l JANUARY 28 l 2017 Business Briefs plunge 46pc Asian shares inch down, dollar extends gains in holiday trade Business Briefs Business Briefs Business Briefs Business Briefs Business Briefs Logos of Swiss bank UBS are seen at a branch office in Zurich. — Reuters ZURICH: Swiss banking giant UBS on Friday said profits plunged 46 per cent in 2016 under the weight of restructuring costs and a downturn for its investment bank in difficult market conditions. Switzerland’s largest bank reported its net profits for the year were 3.3 billion Swiss francs (3.09 billion euros, $3.3 billion). The results included 693 million Swiss francs in provisions for potential legal costs and 1.4 billion in restructuring charges. “Despite a very challenging market environment in 2016, we achieved solid results..,” chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in a statement. “While we saw persistent client risk aversion and substantial cross-border outflows, we generated over CHF 40 billion of net new money in our wealth management businesses”. The bank said it had been able to reduce costs by 1.6 billion Swiss francs, nearly 50 per cent more than in the previous year, and was on track to achieve its target of 2.1 billion by the end of this year. Ultra-low and negative interest rates have been hitting big banks hard, as well as regulatory measures to improve their ability to absorb losses. — AFP The logo of Toshiba Corp is displayed at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo. — AFP TOKYO: Toshiba said on Friday it will spin off its memory chip business, following reports that the vast conglomerate is planning to sell a stake in the unit to repair its battered balance sheet. Local media in recent days have said the company — dented by a major accounting scandal and huge losses in its nuclear business — is looking to raise as much as $2.6 billion from selling around 20 per cent of the chip division. While it did not confirm any sale plans, Toshiba said on Friday it was considering “outside capital” to help restore its finances. “We have decided a plan to spin off our storage and electronic devices solutions company into a separate firm effective around March 31, 2017,” it said in a statement, referring to the chip unit. A once-proud pillar of corporate Japan, Toshiba has been besieged by problems, most notably the profit-padding scandal in which bosses for years systematically pushed subordinates to cover up weak financial results. — AFP SAN FRANCISCO: Google parent Alphabet on Thursday reported that its profit in the final three months of last year climbed on growth in mobile search and video-sharing service YouTube. The California-based technology giant said its net income rose eight per cent to $5.3 billion, which fell short of Wall Street expectations despite better-than-expected revenue. Alphabet revenue in the quarter topped $26 billion, up 22 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Its shares slipped more than two per cent to $838.29 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures. “Our growth in the fourth quarter was exceptional,” Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said in the earnings release, crediting mobile search and YouTube with driving the performance. Its main operating unit remains Google and advertising remained the money-making engine for the company, but the number of paid clicks shrank, according to the earnings report. — AFP A pedestrian walks past an electronic quotation board flashing stock prices on the Nikkei key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP SINGAPORE: Asian shares were fractionally lower on Friday in holiday-thinned trade but were on track for a solid advance this week, while oil and the dollar retained gains in the wake of strong US corporate earnings. European markets were heading for a quiet start, with financial spreadbetter CMC Markets predicting Britain’s FTSE 100 would open flat and France’s CAC 40 would start the day down 0.1 per cent. It forecast that Germany’s DAX, which on Thursday closed at its highest level since May 2015, would open 0.2 per cent lower. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1 per cent, with several markets closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. It was on track to end the week up 1.85 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.3 per cent, after data showed December core consumer prices fell at the slowest annual pace in nearly a year, suggesting inflation should pick up in coming months. The Nikkei posted a 1.7 per cent gain for the week. Markets in China were shut for the Lunar New Year holiday, and will reopen on February 3. Hong Kong shares barely moved on Friday, when the market closed at midday. Overnight on Wall Street, all three major indices hit life-time intraday highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average also rising 0.2 per cent to close at a record high after breaching 20,000 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq edged back down to end the day a touch below Wednesday’s record close. The MSCI World index was steady on Friday. It hit a record intraday high on Thursday before ending the day about 0.1 per cent below its previous close. European shares climbed to a one-year high on Thursday, lifted by Johnson & Johnson’s $30 billion deal to buy Swiss biotech firm Actelion. The Mexican peso tumbled about 0.8 per cent against the dollar on Friday after the White House said the US might impose a 20 per cent tax on Mexican imports to pay for a border wall between the two countries. That followed Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to pull out of a meeting in Washington after his US counterpart Donald Trump tweeted that it would be better for the Mexican leader not to visit if his country wouldn’t pay for the wall. Trump’s office later walked back the idea of a tax, saying that was “one way” of making Mexico pay. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against its trade-weighted rivals, was up 0.35 per cent at 100.73 on Friday. On Thursday, it touched a sevenweek low but closed up 0.35 per cent. The index is set to end the week flat, after market jitters following Trump’s protectionist inaugural speech weighed on the dollar early in the week. The dollar rose 0.4 per cent to 115.14 yen, extending Thursday’s 1.3 per cent surge and putting it on track for a 0.5 per cent weekly gain. The prospect of higher US inflation boosted US 10-year Treasury yields to 2.5158 per cent on Friday. On Thursday, they hit 2.555 per cent, their highest level this year, before settling back down at 2.508. The euro slid 0.15 per cent to $1.06655 on Friday, adding to its 0.6 per cent loss from Thursday. In commodities, oil retained its gains from Thursday that were driven by the resurgence of risk appetites. But a jump in US inventories this week capped its advance. US crude was little changed at $53.78 a barrel, after Thursday’s near 2 per cent surge. It is poised for a 2.6 per cent weekly increase. Global benchmark Brent eased 0.1 per cent to $56.19, heading for a rise of 1.3 per cent for the week. Gold widened losses on Friday, its fourth straight session of declines, as investors dumped the precious metal for riskier, higher returning assets. Spot gold fell 0.5 per cent to $1,182.30 an ounce, heading for a 2.3 per cent loss for the week, its first weekly decline in five. — Reuters Ford sees lower 2017 profits, takes hit from pensions, Mexico DETROIT: Ford Motor Co reported a fourthquarter loss, citing an accounting change to pensions and costs for abandoning a factory in Mexico, which President Donald Trump had attacked on the road to the White House. Ford also reaffirmed its forecast that 2017 profits would be lower, which contrasted with more upbeat forecasts from Detroit rivals General Motors Co and the US operations of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Ford shares were down 3.2 per cent at $12.38. Ford’s fourth-quarter results took a $200-million hit from costs related to cancelling a $1.6-billion small car plant in Mexico that had become a target for Trump during his campaign last year. Ford said overall it will save $500 million by consolidating small car production planned for the new assembly factory at an existing plant in Mexico. When it said it was cancelling the Mexican plant earlier this month, Ford said it would add 700 jobs in Michigan tied to production of electric and autonomous vehicles. The suburban Detroit factory that builds the current Ford Focus small car will be converted to assemble pick-up trucks and a new Bronco sport utility. The company said the decision was driven by slack demand and weak pricing for small cars, but Ford executives said they were encouraged by Trump’s promises of corporate tax cuts and regulatory relief. Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said on Thursday Ford would await specific policies of the Trump administration for an idea of how they will affect the company’s future investment plans. “We are watching,” Shanks said. Ford has enough plants in the United States now Tokyo stocks ended higher with banks leading the charge while exporters were boosted by a weaker yen. The Nikkei posted a 1.7 per cent gain for the week. People walk by the Ford display during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. — Reuters and is not planning on building a new one, Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields told Wall Street analysts on Thursday. He added that the company has expanded some plants including the one that will add 700 jobs near Detroit. Ford’s results and its downbeat outlook point to other challenges for the Dearborn, Michigan automaker beyond plant investments. Ford’s North American auto operations, which account for about 90 per cent of pre-tax profit, had adjusted profit margins for the quarter of 8.5 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent a year earlier. GM, however, reported 11.2 per cent adjusted profit margin in North America in the third quarter, and has said it will easily eclipse its more than 10 per cent margin target for the region for 2016. GM reports earnings on February 7. Ford’s 2016 North American pretax profit margin was 9.7 per cent, from 10.2 per cent in 2015. Ford CFO Shanks said the North American margin would have been 10.3 per cent last year if not for a $570 million recall expense. In Europe, Ford reported a record pretax profit of $1.2 billion for the year, while GM is in the red in Europe. For the fourth quarter, Ford reported a loss of $783 million, or 20 cents a share, for the fourth quarter of 2016 because of a $3 billion non-cash accounting remeasurement announced last week, which is related to low interest rates. — Reuters
GOLF 17 SATURDAY l JANUARY 28 l 2017 SPORTS OMANDAILYOBSERVER FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN: The American carded a bogey-strewn opening round at the Torrey Pines Golf Club’s South Course Torrid for Tiger as Rose blooms in California LA JOLLA, United States: Tiger Woods endured a rocky return at the Farmers Insurance Open in California on Thursday, posting the highest season-opening PGA Tour round of his career with a four-over-par 76. Woods, playing his first full-field PGA Tour event since returning from more than a year off with a back injury, carded a bogey-strewn opening round on the Torrey Pines Golf Club’s South Course. It was anything but a happy return to the challenging coastal layout outside San Diego where the former world number one has won no fewer than eight times in his career, most notably his epic 2008 US Open victory. Woods’ previous highest seasonopening round was a 73 shot at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2015, according to PGA Tour officials. “I was fighting out there all day,” Woods said afterwards. The 41-year-old’s round unravelled during the back nine, when three consecutive bogeys starting on the 12th were capped with a double-bogey on the 15th. A further bogey on the 17th left him facing the prospect of finishing five over before a birdie on the last — nervelessly draining an awkward eight-foot putt —reduced the damage. “I let it slip away in the middle part of the back nine and unfortunately didn’t hit very good shots,” said Woods, who took encouragement from a solid if unspectacular start which left him at one under through 11. “I fought my tail off out there. I fought hard. I was in a good spot to really shoot a good round today and didn’t really have my best stuff early,” Tiger Woods tees off the 5th hole during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course. — USA Today Sports Woods said. “But I got through there and that’s one of the positives obviously I’m going to take out of it.” The round left Woods 11 shots behind first-round leader Justin Rose of England, who posted a sevenunder-par 65 earlier on Thursday. Rose, the 2013 US Open champion, produced an eagle on his last hole after a blistering back nine on Torrey Pines’ North Course. The 36-year-old 2013 US Open champion hit three birdies and two bogeys over the front nine to go to the turn in one under. But a birdie on the North Course’s par-four first — his 10th of the day — launched a low-scoring back nine, with an eagle three on the par-five fifth followed by back-to-back birdies. Rose’s momentum faltered however with a bogey on the penultimate hole before a brilliant eagle on the last resurrected his round. “Great start to the tournament,” said a satisfied Rose. “The key to the round was having four eagle putts. I hit all the par fives in two so managed to convert two of those,” added Rose, citing his barnstorming closing eagle as the highlight of the round. “Obviously a very sweet way to finish. It was just a perfect five-wood into the last hole.” GOOD GOLF Canada’s Adam Hadwin, fresh from a second placed finish at La Quinta last weekend which included a rare 59, was a shot back after carding a six-underpar 66. The 29-year-old launched his round with a birdie on the first before adding two more on the sixth and eighth holes to reach the turn at three under. A blemish on the par-four 12th, where he missed an 11-foot putt to bogey was soon overcome with a trio of birdies on the next three holes. He snared a further birdie on the 17th with a 12-foot putt to move to six under. “I’m just playing some good golf right now,” Hadwin said, admitting he was still smarting from his failure to close out victory in La Quinta on Sunday. “A little disappointed I couldn’t pull it off, but (I) went back out and kind of got started where I left off last week.” Lurking behind Hadwin on five under were a group of five players, Gary Woodland, Charles Howell III, Beau Hossler, Trey Mullinax and Brad Fritsch of Canada, who all carded 67s. A group of 11 players were a further shot back. — AFP Rangers need to be clinical, says Waghorn GLASGOW: Rangers leading scorer Martyn Waghorn says they must start converting their chances if they are to hold off their rivals for second place in the Scottish Premiership. Rangers will be back in league action against Motherwell on Saturday for the first time since an Old Firm defeat at the end of December left them trailing bitter rivals Celtic by 22 points at the top of the table. With their hopes of the championship looking beyond them Rangers now have to concentrate on securing second spot and the European place that goes with it. Mark Warburton’s side hold a slender two-point advantage over Aberdeen in the race for the runners-up position with the Dons having a game in hand. In such a tight race what will also be worrying Warburton is Aberdeen have a vastly superior goal difference to his side, who have managed just 28 goals in 21 matches — half that of Celtic. Waghorn, who has scored 10 goals in all competitions this season, knows he and his fellow forwards need to improve in front of goal. “I just think, and everyone can look at themselves, but I think we can just be a bit more clinical in front of goal,” the former England Under-21 striker said. “We’re getting enough chances, maybe we turn down the opportunity to shoot sometimes and try to play around, I don’t know. “But it’s one of the areas we do need to work on, scoring more goals and finishing teams off when we do get the lead. “It’s something we can obviously improve, it’s something we do need to address and hopefully that can improve in the future.” ‘IT’S ABOUT ADJUSTING’ Last weekend’s Scottish Cup victory over Motherwell was symptomatic of Rangers’ season, dominating possession but failing to make the most of their chances as they came from behind to win 2-1. Waghorn believes a change in their style of play in recent weeks could help them string a run of victories together and help consolidate their position in the league. “I think we’ve changed a bit of our game,” the 27-year-old Englishman said. “We’ve changed formation, we’ve tried to get two up front and get the wide players pushing on.— AFP Westbrook propels Oklahoma to victory OKLAHOMA: Russell Westbrook scored 45 points in Oklahoma City’s 109-98 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, but the Thunder lost Enes Kanter to a fractured right forearm. Kanter, Oklahoma City’s thirdleading scorer, third-leading rebounder and top candidate for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, sustained the injury while punching a chair during a timeout in the second quarter. Victor Oladipo scored 17 points while Adams added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder. Harrison Barnes paced Dallas with 31 points on 13-of-26 shooting. Justin Anderson came off the bench to post 17 points for the Mavericks, who played without four of their top six players including Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams and Wesley Matthews. PACERS 109, TIMBERWOLVES 103 All-Star Paul George scored 32 points and Myles Turner added 23 as Indiana topped Minnesota. The Pacers snapped a three-game losing streak three days after their third straight loss drew boos from their home crowd. George, who added five rebounds and four assists, was 12 of 22 from the floor and 3 for 4 from 3-point range. Karl- Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with a game-high 33 points and 10 rebounds, while Zach LaVine scored 23. It was Towns’ 35th double-double of the season — third-most in the Oklahoma City Thunder forward Domantas Sabonis (3) drives to the basket against Dallas Mavericks forward Harrison Barnes (40) during the fourth quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. — USA Today Sports NBA. NUGGETS 127, SUNS 120 Nikola Jokic had 29 points and 14 rebounds before leaving late in the fourth with an injury as the Nuggets defeated the Suns. Danilo Gallinari scored 23 points and Will Barton scored 16 off the bench for Denver, which won its five straight at home. Jokic limped off the court with 1:47 left after a hard fall. Eric Bledsoe had 28 points and Devin Booker scored 22 for the Suns. T J Warren added 21 but Phoenix couldn’t keep pace down the stretch. JAZZ 96, LAKERS 88 Gordon Hayward scored 24 points in his first game after being selected as an NBA All-Star, leading Utah to a victory over Los Angeles. George Hill added 12 points and Rudy Gobert chipped in nine points, 13 rebounds and a season-high six blocked shots for the Jazz. Utah snapped a two-game losing streak and swept the four-game season series with Los Angeles for the first time. — Reuters Hart thrives in Italy while replacement Bravo flounders MILAN: An early lesson Joe Hart learned after moving to Torino was that the English soccer term “clean sheet” does not translate literally into Italian. England’s goalkeeper caused much amusement among Torino fans when he chose the words “lenzuola pulite” (which means ‘two clean bed sheets’) to express his satisfaction at completing two games without conceding a goal in September. Not the most auspicious start for an adventure abroad, perhaps, but fortunately for Hart, his gaffes have been mainly linguistic rather than footballing ones. The 29-year-old England goalkeeper had been in the doldrums on the back of an error-strewn performance for his country at Euro 2016 when he was loaned to Torino in August. The unexpected move came only days after incoming Manchester City coached Pep Guardiola signed Claudio Bravo from Barcelona. But while Bravo has fumbled his way through his first few months in the Premier League, Hart has quietly been putting his career back on track in one of the world’s most difficult leagues. Leaving the Premier League title contenders for a midtable Serie A outfit may have seemed like the start of a downward spiral at the time, but it is now beginning to look like an inspired springboard. Ever-present since his arrival in Italy, Hart has played 19 league games for the Bulls, and has won widespread plaudits for his displays — not an easy feat in a notoriously unforgiving Serie A. Hart enjoys a warm relationship with the Torino supporters and his saves were directly credited — by the unofficial club website Toro — for earning his side nine points from three draws and two wins in games they would otherwise have lost. “He gave the team security which transformed into points,” it said. The sentiment contrasts with some of the treatment meted out to Bravo in England. “Bravo looks like he’s never actually played football before,” one newspaper journalist wrote of the Chilean after his error-strewn debut. Former England striker Ian Wright was more cutting. “Claudio Bravo is terrible,” he tweeted. — Reuters
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CHALLENGES

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