Gold on Friday climbed for a ninth straight day, while oil rallied for a third consecutive weekly advance, amid concern the US was getting closer to losing its top credit rating.
Gold futures added 0.3 percent to US$1,593.80 an ounce at 4pm in New York and have risen 7.5 percent since July 1. Crude jumped 1.6 percent to US$97.24 a barrel.
US House Republicans plan a vote next week on a measure to cut spending, cap expenditures and condition a US$2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling on passage of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. The vote offers no immediate resolution to talks aimed at reaching a deal by an Aug. 2 deadline.
Adding urgency to the debt-ceiling dispute, S&P’s Ratings Services announced on Thursday it might lower the US top-level credit rating, saying there was an increasing risk of a substantial policy stalemate enduring beyond any near-term agreement to raise the debt ceiling. Moody’s Investors Service placed the nation’s credit rating under review for a downgrade on Wednesday.
US lawmakers “don’t get” the long-term implications of deficit reduction, Pacific Investment Management Co’s Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said on Bloomberg TV during an interview with Tom Keene.
“The US basically has a US$60 trillion net present value liability burden, and that constitutes Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in combination,” Gross said. “It certainly exceeds those liabilities in Greece or Portugal or Spain. Ultimately the US has a big, big problem.”
Gold increased 0.3 percent for its ninth straight advance, the longest rally since November 2009, as the debt woes in the US and Europe boosted the appeal of the precious metal as a haven. Gold gained 3.4 percent this week.
Crude oil advanced as much as 2.1 percent on Friday, settling at US$97.24 a barrel, up 1.6 percent. For the week, prices gained 1.1 percent and have climbed 27 percent in the past year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”