Copper and tin prices nailed historic highs this week, and gold smashed above US$1,400 for the first time in history in a sustained record-breaking run fueled by hopes of economic recovery.
BASE METALS: Copper soared to a record peak of US$8,966 a tonne — beating the previous high of US$8,940 seen in July 2008 — on supportive Chinese economic data, tight global supplies and strikes in key producer Chile.
In addition, tin set an all-time high at US$27,500 per tonne, before both industrial metals ran into profit-taking.
Copper has rocketed by 50 percent since June.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months eased to US$8,695 a tonne from US$8,730 a week earlier. Three-month aluminum slipped to US$2,445 a tonne from US$2,466. Three-month lead rose to US$2,545 a tonne from US$2,525. Three-month tin pulled back to US$26,450 a tonne from US$26,600 from a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold soared to a fresh record of US$1,424.60 per ounce on the London Bullion Market, after hurtling past the US$1,400 barrier, boosted by its safe-haven status and the weak US dollar.
In the wake of gold, sister metal silver flew to a new 30-year peak at US$29.36 an ounce and palladium chalked up a nine-year high.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold surged to US$1,388.50 an ounce at the late fixing, from US$1,346.77 a week earlier.
Silver advanced to US$26.79 an ounce from US$23.96.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum rallied to US$1,712 an ounce from US$1,700. Palladium increased to US$703 an ounce from US$640.
OIL: Crude oil prices neared US$90 for the first time in more than two years, stoked by expectations of increased demand amid tight supplies.
They pulled back on Friday when traders took their cue from a stronger US dollar and speculation over a Chinese interest rate rise which could curb consumption.
By late Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December edged down to US$87.86 a barrel from US$88.10 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for December stood at US$86.62 a barrel, from 86.77.
SUGAR: Sugar futures soared to major multi-year highs before running into profit-taking.
Unrefined sugar for delivery in March jumped to US$0.3339 a pound — the best level for around three decades. In London, a tonne of white sugar reached a 23 year peak of £811 a tonne.
By Friday on the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), the price of unrefined sugar for delivery in March fell to US$0.28 a pound (0.45kg) from US$0.3181 a week earlier.
On LIFFE — London’s futures exchange — the price of a tonne of white sugar for December retreated to £735 from £776.
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
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],”
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
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