Commodity prices were rocked this week on intensifying worries over a possible Greek default, which sent the euro sliding against the US dollar.
“The bottom fell out of a number of markets on Wednesday ... as oil led the overall group lower,” MF Global analyst Edward Meir said.
“It seems that the confluence of bearish events that we have been highlighting for some time all seem to have come together on Wednesday, with the deteriorating Greek situation being the straw that finally broke the camel’s back,” he said.
“Commodities were also hit hard by the soaring dollar as it regained its safe haven status amid the market tumult,” he said.
OIL: World oil prices plummeted close to US$92 a barrel in New York as investors shunned risky assets and fretted about heightened Greek tensions, the strong dollar and poor US economic data.
New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude, sank to US$92.12, levels last seen on Feb. 23, while Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month dived as low as US$111.05, a price last reached on May 24.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold won solid support from its status as a safe haven investment amid global economic turmoil and high inflation, but other precious metals beat a retreat.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold climbed to US$1,537.50 an ounce from US$1,529.25 the previous week.
Silver eased to US$35.39 an ounce from US$37.38. On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dived to US$1,751 an ounce from US$1,829. Palladium fell to US$754 an ounce from US$810.
BASE METALS: Industrial metals prices mainly fell, but copper bucked the trend to post an impressive performance on expectations of rising demand from the world’s emerging economies.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rallied to US$9,147 a tonne from US$8,931 the previous week.
GRAINS AND SOYA: Corn or maize prices fell as traders banked profits after striking record highs the previous week.
Corn had rocketed last week to an all-time peak at US$7.99 per bushel, propelled by supply fears after the US slashed its production forecasts for the new crop year.
By Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade, maize for delivery next month fell to US$7.12 a bushel from US$7.86 a week earlier.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by