填空题 A. Some at Fed Are Urging Pre-emptive Stimulus
B. Major Chip Deal Aims to Cut Costs
C. Action Needed to Tackle Economy
D. Chrysler Posts a 20% Increase in 2nd Qtr Profit
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DETROIT. Chrysler"s U. S. sales rose 20 percent in June on strong demand across its lineup, from the tiny Fiat 500 to the Ram pickup truck.
The automaker"s sales increase last month was in line with expectations for overall industry growth of about 20 percent over last June. Sales were weaker last year because the Japanese earthquake depleted supplies. Other automakers report sales later Tuesday.
Demand for Chrysler"s Ram pickup—its best-seller—increased 12 percent as home building perked up. Cars saw much bigger increases. Sales of the Fiat 500 and the Chrysler 300 large sedan more than doubled over last June.
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Taibei: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world"s biggest contract chipmaker, has agreed to invest 1.1bn euros ($1.4bn; 850m) in one of its key equipment suppliers in a bid to cut costs.
Under the deal, it will invest 276m euro in ASML to develop tools to make smaller, more cost-effective chips. This comes just weeks after Intel signed a similar agreement with ASML. Dutch firm ASML makes machines used to print circuit patterns onto chips.
Shang-yi Chiang, TSMC"s co-chief operating officer, said that one of the biggest challenges facing the industry was "how to effectively control the escalating wafer manufacturing cost". He said the co-investment programme with ASML to develop future technology will help keep the costs in check in the long run.
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WASHINGTON: Some Federal Reserve officials are reviving an idea that rose and fell with Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, as they seek to persuade colleagues to take new action to stimulate growth.
Central bankers generally set policy based on their judgment about the most likely path for the nation"s economy. But Mr. Greenspan argued that the Fed sometimes should do more than its forecast suggested, buttressing the economy against large, potential risks. He described such moves as "taking out insurance."
On the eve of the Fed"s policy-making committee meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, members who favor additional action argued that the likely path of the economy was itself sufficient reason for action. The committee predicted in June that without new measures unemployment would fall slightly, if at all, in the second half of the year.
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Madrid: Spain is in an "unprecedented" double-dip recession and the outlook for the country remains "very difficult" with "significant downside risks", the International Monetary Fund has said. Its annual report on the Spanish economy praised Madrid"s "decisive action on many fronts", but warned further reforms were needed. Actions to cut debt and push financial reform were "critical", it said.
Earlier, figures showed Spanish unemployment hitting a fresh high. Almost 5.7 million Spaniards are now out of work, with the jobless rate reaching 24.6% during the April to June quarter—the highest since the 1970s.
Despite the worsening jobless figures, Spanish stocks rose sharply on Friday after French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint statement suggesting they were ready to act to save the euro.