World Street | US builds pressure on SMIC; Google unveils Gemma, Jeff Bezos sells Amazon stake, US Fed minutes and more

World Street offers a sneak peek into the world of business and economy.

US heightens pressure on Chinese chipmaker SMIC. The EU implements additional sanctions against Russia. Google unveils Gemma AI models for developers. Germany's economic advisers hint at adjustments to growth forecasts. HSBC reports record profits but falls short due to a charge from its Chinese bank stake. Jeff Bezos sells $2.4 billion in Amazon shares. Nvidia outperforms earnings expectations. The Fed expresses concerns about premature rate cuts. Japan's Manufacturing PMI hits a three-year low. All this and more on this edition of World Street.

The Biden administration is turning up the heat on China's top sanctioned chipmaker by cutting off its most advanced factory from more American imports after it produced a sophisticated chip for Huawei's Mate 60 Pro phone, reports Reuters. Late last year, the Commerce Department sent dozens of letters to US suppliers to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), suspending permission to sell to its most advanced plant.

EU members approved a 13th package of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia, banning nearly 200 entities and individuals accused of helping Moscow procure weapons or of involvement in kidnapping Ukrainian children. "EU ambassadors just agreed in principle on a 13th package of sanctions in the framework of Russia's aggression against Ukraine," Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said on social media platform X, calling it "one of the broadest approved by the EU".

Google on Wednesday released artificial intelligence (AI) models that outside developers potentially can fashion as their own, following a similar move by Meta Platforms and others. The Alphabet subsidiary said individuals and businesses can build AI software based on its new family of "open models" called Gemma, for free. The company is making key technical data such as what are called model weights publicly available.

Germany's economic advisors plan to follow the federal government's lead and reduce their forecast for economic growth in 2024, adviser Ulrike Malmendier told Reuters. "I think we will definitely be going in the same direction... that is what our numbers are indicating." The November forecast of the council of advisers to the government estimated growth would hit just 0.7 percent in 2024. The next official update is due in mid-May.

HSBC Holdings reported a record annual profit, that nonetheless came in below analysts' forecasts as the income boost from higher interest rates was offset by a hefty $3-billion charge from its stake in a Chinese bank. HSBC reported a pretax profit of $30.3 billion for 2023, up 78 percent from a year earlier but worse than $34.1 billion broker estimates.

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos offloaded more than 14 million shares of his company valued at around $2.4 billion. The sales were executed under a prearranged trading plan that said Bezos could sell up to 50 million Amazon shares before January 31, 2025. Bezos sold about 12 million Amazon shares, worth approximately $2.03 billion, last week, in addition to another tranche of 12 million shares just days before. He unloaded another 12 million shares the week before that. He has sold a total of 50 million shares in a span of two months.

US Tech giant Nvidia reported fourth fiscal quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s forecast for earnings and sales, and said revenue during the current quarter would be better than expected, even against elevated expectations for massive growth. Nvidia has emerged as the predominant beneficiary of the current technology industry's fascination with expansive artificial intelligence models, which are developed on the company’s expensive graphics processors for servers.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed that most officials remained more worried about the risk of cutting interest rates too soon than keeping them high for too long and damaging the economy. A summary of the January 30-31 FOMC meeting showed policymakers want to see more evidence of inflation being firmly on a path to their 2 percent target before lowering interest rates, with some raising concerns that progress could stall. Together, the minutes reinforced expectations that borrowing costs will remain high for the near future.

Japan’s Manufacturing PMI, a key gauge of Japan’s manufacturing activity fell to the weakest in more than three years, sending a cautionary signal to the Bank of Japan as it considers an exit from its ultra-stimulative policy settings. The au Jibun Bank PMI for manufacturing sector activity slid to 47.2 in February, the lowest since August of 2020, and the ninth straight month in which the figure stayed below the boom-or-bust level of 50, S&P Global reported. The composite reading slid to 50.3, and services fell to 52.5.

China’s equity futures market has restored some sense of normalcy after a period of extreme discounts, a sign that relentless bearishness may be fading as policymakers step in to calm investor nerves, reports Bloomberg. On Wednesday, the CSI1000 Index futures closed at 5,073.80, marking a return to a slight premium over the underlying small-cap index. Only a month prior, the discount had expanded to an unprecedented -179 points. Analysts attributed this surge in selling activity to hedging demands from holders of a derivative instrument known as the "snowball."