Samsung’s profit plunged 95% to its lowest level since 2009 as chip demand slumps
South Korean electronics giant Samsung’s operating profit plunged in the primary quarter as prices for its memory chips continued to fall and demand remained weak.
Listed here are Samsung’s earnings at a look in the primary quarter:
Revenue: 63.75 trillion Korean won (about $47.6 billion), down 18% year-on-year. That’s on par with Samsung’s own guidance of roughly 63 trillion Korean won but below the 63.9 trillion won expected by analysts, in response to Refinitiv consensus estimates.
Operating profit: 640 billion Korean won (roughly $478.55 million), down from 14.12 trillion won a 12 months earlier. The corporate issued guidance earlier this month saying Q1 profit could be 600 billion Korean won.
That is the corporate’s lowest operating profit because the first quarter of 2009.
US in ‘Worst of Each Worlds’ With High Inflation, GDP Slowdown
The US economy was slowing even before the brunt of any credit crunch stemming from the recent bank failures, while inflation accelerated, highlighting the large challenge faced by the Federal Reserve.
Gross domestic product rose an annualized 1.1% in the primary quarter, notably lower than the median forecast for 1.9% in Bloomberg’s survey, Bureau of Economic Evaluation data showed Thursday.
The slowdown was largely driven by a list drawdown, with an acceleration in consumer spending providing the predominant impetus for growth. Still, economists warned that momentum slowed because the quarter progressed, in a warning sign for the present quarter.
Frustratingly for the Fed, the central bank’s preferred core gauge of costs, which excludes food and energy, picked as much as 4.9% within the January-through-March period, the quickest pace in a 12 months. Meantime, a separate report underscored enduring strength within the labor market, with weekly jobless claims unexpectedly dropping.
Money supply slumps for fifth consecutive month
In March 2023, the M2 measure of cash supply contracted for the fifth consecutive month in the US (-4.5% over one 12 months). The identification of the predominant sources of monetary creation/destruction reveals the impact of the restrictive monetary environment and the resulting trade-offs.