Gold hit a record high as traders sought out safe-haven investments amid mounting debt tensions in the US and lingering concerns over high deficits for eurozone members.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold reached an all-time peak of US$1,632.80 an ounce on Friday, extending the precious metal’s recent record-breaking run on the London Bullion Market.
“The threat of default by the world largest economy has led gold to a fresh peak,” said James Moore, an expert at commodities analysis group FastMarkets. “Should a default occur, gold will be vulnerable to a sharp correction as investors cut their risk exposure and use gold to generate cash, but ... once the initial sell-off is complete there are likely to be further upside gains.”
This week among other precious metals, silver hit US$41.45 an ounce, close to a three-month high, before easing on profit taking. Palladium struck a five-month peak at US$846 an ounce.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold jumped to US$1,628.50 an ounce from US$1,602 the previous week.
Silver eased to US$39.63 an ounce from US$39.67.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dropped to US$1,779 an ounce from US$1,793.
Palladium increased to US$824 an ounce from US$807.
OIL: Crude futures slid amid fears of weaker demand for oil in the US, the world’s biggest consumer of oil.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September fell to US$115.91 a barrel from US$118.53 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate for September dropped to US$95.54 a barrel from US$99.81.
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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