Commodity prices diverged this week as traders reacted to a mixed outlook for the global economy, while oil futures were also impacted by Middle East supply worries.
OIL: Oil prices fell having endured a roller-coaster ride.
Brent crude futures slumped by US$4 a barrel on Thursday following a report, later denied, that the US and Britain had agreed to supply the market with crude reserves.
The White House confirmed the issue was discussed by US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, but denied that there was a pact.
“Oil has been rebounding since that denial,” said Victor Shum, an analyst at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for April dropped to US$106.23 a barrel from US$107.91 the previous week.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold prices hit a two-month low at US$1,634.53 an ounce, while platinum’s value surpassed the yellow metal for the first time since September last year.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold dropped to $US1,658 an ounce from US$1,687.50 the previous week.
Silver fell to US$32.27 an ounce from US$33.87.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum increased to US$1,677 an ounce from US$1,655.
Palladium grew to US$703 an ounce from US$690.
BASE METALS: Base metals prices mostly rose as upbeat US economic data offset fears of a Chinese slowdown.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$8,648 a tonne from US$8,490 the previous week.
Three-month aluminum increased to US$2,274 a tonne from US$2,229.
Three-month lead dipped to US$2,137 a tonne from US$2,159.
Three-month tin climbed to US$23,800 a tonne from US$23,000.
Three-month nickel advanced to US$19,221 a tonne from US$19,100.
Three-month zinc grew to US$2,102 a tonne from US$2,087.
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