Oil traded near the highest price in two days in New York as investors speculated fuel demand may increase amid signs the US economy is strengthening.

"The contract is expected to rise to US$11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung's faster SSD storage," said a Samsung official.

Hynix Semiconductor said the chip industry is set to recover from the second half of this year as the prices of DRAM chips have been rebounding following news of Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory's bankruptcy protection filing late last month.

Infineon's chief executive Peter Bauer has said the company wants to generate 50% of its total sales from Asia over the long term. Since it made over 40% of sales from Asia in fiscal 2011, it is clearly making progress on its target.

Applied Materials and the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have officially opened the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Packaging at Singapore's Science Park II.

The weak demand for TI's wireless products such as smartphones and tablets is mainly in its OMAP applications processors and connectivity products, said TI vice president Ron Slaymaker.

"It is likely to mean fewer goods are 'Made in Japan', but more are 'Made by Japan'," said David Rea, Japan economist at Capital Economics.

China posted its largest trade deficit in at least a decade in February after imports of commodities jumped as companies built up supplies.

The US government last year announced a US$10 million award, dubbed the "L Prize," for any manufacturer that could create a "green" but affordable light bulb.

Around 11,000 people gathered in Berlin on 5 March to protest against further cuts to the support for solar photovoltaics (PV) in Germany from April.

The federal government spent $24 billion on energy subsidies in 2011, with the vast majority going to renewable energy sources, according to a government report.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed expanding tax credits to make alternative-energy cars and trucks more appealing to buyers.

Japan's Sumco is in final talks with a turnaround fund backed by the country's major banks to raise JPY15 billion (US$186 million) by issuing preferred shares, a source familiar with the deal said on Thursday.

Rumors surfaced online today that claim TSMC has pulled the plug on their 28nm manufacturing lines and that the company started to test and tune the machines to improve yields.

Qualcomm has said it plans to buy back as much as US$4 billion of shares and raise its dividend by 16% to return cash to shareholders as earnings increase.

Hitachi has sold all 12.8 million shares of Elpida, spokesman Yuichi Izumisawa said by phone today, confirming an earlier Nikkei report.

A new trade organization, established by First Solar and rival CdTe thin film module producers and suppliers has been formed to promote and educate on the technology's attributes.