FirstFT: US asks South Korea not to fill market gap if China bans Micron chips

Forward of a state go to by President Yoon Suk Yeol to Washington immediately, the White Home has requested South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to boost sales to China ought to Beijing ban Micron from promoting chips, individuals acquainted with the scenario mentioned.

China this month launched a nationwide safety evaluation into US-based Micron, one in every of three dominant gamers within the world Dram reminiscence chip market alongside South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. US officers and enterprise executives imagine that is retaliation for President Joe Biden’s strikes to forestall China from acquiring or making superior semiconductors.

It’s unclear whether or not punitive motion might be taken after the probe, however with mainland China and Hong Kong producing 25 per cent of its $30.8bn in income final yr, the stakes are excessive for Micron.

The case has emerged as a litmus check of whether or not Beijing is keen to take coercive financial measures towards a significant US firm for the primary time. Whereas the US has labored with allies to counter China within the safety space within the Indo-Pacific, that is the primary recognized event that it has requested an ally to enlist its corporations to play a task.

Right here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on immediately:

• Outcomes: Troubled lenders Credit score Suisse and First Republic Financial institution report, as will The Coca-Cola Firm, Philips and Vivendi.

• EU assembly: The bloc’s International Affairs Council meets in Luxembourg to debate Russia’s warfare on Ukraine.

• Financial information: Ifo has its enterprise local weather index for Germany and Rightmove publishes its home worth index for the UK.

5 extra prime tales

1. EXCLUSIVE: Santander is in talks to rent a number of of Credit score Suisse’s prime funding bankers in New York, based on individuals acquainted with the matter, because it seeks to capitalise on the Swiss lender’s emergency rescue by UBS. Find out which bankers the Spanish group has spoken to.

2. Buyers are underestimating how excessive eurozone borrowing prices will rise, the top of Belgium’s central financial institution instructed the Monetary Occasions. Pierre Wunsch, who sits on the European Central Financial institution’s rate-setting council, mentioned he would agree to halt interest rate rises only if wage growth slowed.

3. More durable UK laws on office sexual harassment is about to be shelved after a flurry of amendments from Conservative friends stymied its progress by parliament. Teams that urged ministers to prioritise the long-awaited laws within the wake of the CBI rape allegations have accused the peers of seeking to “wreck” the bill.

4. Jeff Shell will step down as NBCUniversal chief government after an “inappropriate relationship” with a feminine colleague, mother or father firm Comcast mentioned yesterday. A grievance had prompted an investigation led by exterior counsel into the 19-year veteran of the company.

5. US president Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act may very well complicate efforts to cut back inflation, critics starting from Financial institution of America to BlackRock’s Larry Fink have warned, although it has sparked an funding growth. Here’s why the scale of the federal handouts is causing worry.

The Massive Learn

The weeks since Silicon Valley Financial institution collapsed on March 10 have introduced an uncomfortable realisation — the issues that provoked the most important financial institution run in historical past have been neither a freak incidence nor an unforeseeable emergency. Forward of the primary official postmortem on its failure, nearly everybody agrees that the crisis had been hiding in plain sight.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Know-how companies drove revenue warnings by UK-listed corporations within the first quarter to their highest for the period since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, as financial uncertainty led to delayed and cancelled contracts.

Take a break from the information

On the Weekend podcast, presenter Lilah Raptopoulos speaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks about her new present Performs for the Plague 12 months, which asks us to remember, process and grieve the pandemic.

Further contributions by Annie Jonas and Emily Goldberg