Oil prices climbed by more than US$1 a barrel on Friday, one day after China's decision to abandon its currency peg to the US dollar, making oil prices cheaper for China, the world's second-largest consumer of crude.
The renewed terror attacks on London's public transit system led to some nervousness on the markets. But Thursday's attacks were much less serious than the initial assault two weeks ago and analysts said their effects had dissipated by Friday. A new incident on Friday, with police killing a suspect on a London subway train, also did not brake prices.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose US$1.52 to settle at US$58.65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as bargain hunters stepped in. The contract had dropped US$0.89 on Thursday to close at US$57.13 after the explosions in London raised travel concerns.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose US$0.013 to US$1.5819 a gallon while gasoline rose US$0.016 to US$1.697 a gallon. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, September Brent crude futures climbed US$1.86 to settle at US$57.58 a barrel.
China's abandoning the currency peg was "a slight net positive" for country's short-term oil demand, since imported crude will be cheaper in yuan terms, Barclays Capital said.
"If we are right, then the flow of diesel and gasoline exports out of China could slow down and crude oil imports pick up," said Kevin Norrish, director of commodity research.
But some analysts suggested that Beijing's currency moves will eventually lead to less domestic oil consumption -- and falling prices.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts