Commodity prices mostly fell this week under pressure from the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to inject fresh stimulus into the sluggish US economy and amid stubborn recession fears in Europe.
Markets were also rocked by mounting concern that Spain could be engulfed by the euro-area debt crisis that has already sunk Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Most markets experienced holiday-shortened trade ahead of the Easter holiday break.
Minutes from the Fed’s policy meeting last month, published on Tuesday, dealt a blow to hopes of more quantitative easing (QE) stimulus measures to boost US growth, but the news helped the US dollar.
A stronger greenback often makes US dollar-priced raw materials, like gold and crude oil, more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies, denting demand and weighing on prices.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold hit a three-month low at US$1,612.20 per ounce after the Fed news, dragging other precious metals lower.
“Precious metals prices remain under pressure as concerns about demand persist, with markets focusing on a potential slowdown in China and the Fed downgrading the possibility of further QE,” Barclays Capital analyst Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said.
By late Thursday on the London Bullion Market, gold dipped to US$1,631 an ounce from US$1,662.50 the previous week.
Silver slid to US$31.273 an ounce from US$32.43.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dropped to US$1,592 an ounce from US$$1,640.
Palladium weakened to US$635 an ounce from US$651.
OIL: World oil prices also tumbled after the US government reported a big jump in the nation’s crude stockpiles, adding to concerns about growth in the world’s biggest oil-consuming nation.
The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday that crude reserves soared by 9 million barrels in the week ending March 30. That was a far bigger increase than the average analyst estimate for 1.9 million barrels.
By late Thursday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month dropped to US$122.17 a barrel from US$$123.24 the previous Friday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or light sweet crude for next month fell to US$101.97 from US$103.33.
BASE METALS: Prices mostly fell on the strong US dollar and amid an absence of Chinese buyers because of public holidays.
By late Thursday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell to US$8,405 a tonne from US$8,454.25 the previous Friday.
Three-month aluminum fell to US$2,094 a tonne from US$2,144.
Three-month lead eased to US$2,020 a tonne from US$2,023.
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China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the