Commodities rallied this week as the European Central Bank (ECB) offered cheap loans amid upbeat economic data, but the gains fizzled out after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke downplayed a need for more stimulus.
OIL: Brent crude struck a near four-year peak above US$128 on Thursday following upbeat data and over fears of supply disruptions in Saudi Arabia.
Brent reached US$128.40 a barrel — the highest level since July 23, 2008 — after an Iranian media report of a pipeline fire in Saudi Arabia, although Saudi officials later denied the story.
New York light sweet crude hit a nine-month high at US$110.55 a barrel.
By late Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April edged up to US$123.86 from US$123.83 the previous week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for April dropped to US$106.51 from US$108.23 the previous week.
PRECIOUS METALS: After a strong start to the week that saw silver and platinum notch five-month highs, precious metals prices tumbled and gold struck a one-month low point of US$1,688.40 an ounce after Bernanke’s comments.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold dropped to US$1,707 an ounce from US$1,777.50 the previous week.
Silver fell to US$35.21 an ounce from US$35.57.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum decreased to US$1,704 an ounce from US$1,714.
Palladium dipped to US$713 an ounce from US$714.
BASE METALS: Aluminum reached US$2,361.50 on Friday — the highest level since Sept. 19 last year — owing to unrest in Iran and Syria.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$8,595 a tonne from US$8,502 the previous week.
Three-month aluminum increased to US$2,340 a tonne from US$2,304.
Three-month lead fell to US$2,175 a tonne from US$2,190.
Three-month tin dropped to US$23,800 a tonne from US$24,125.
Three-month zinc climbed to US$2,113 a tonne from US$2,078.
Three-month nickel dipped to US$19,459 a tonne from US$19,975.
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