The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials rose 0.9 percent to 663.96 in New York, the second straight increase. Natural gas led the advance, while silver and cotton declined.
NATURAL GAS: Natural gas futures gained for a second day on Friday in New York on speculation that stockpiles would not reach capacity before winter weather boosts heating demand.
US inventories rose by 67 billion cubic feet last week to 3.496 trillion, below the five-year average increase for the week of 73 billion, a report by the US Department of Energy showed on Thursday. Natural gas for October delivery rose US$0.088, or 3.1 percent, to settle at US$2.885 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures declined 2 percent this week and 3.5 percent this year.
CRUDE OIL: Oil advanced as optimism that the US bank stimulus would revive the global economy pared crude’s biggest weekly decline in more than three months.
NYMEX crude oil for November delivery increased US$0.47, or 0.5 percent, to settle at US$92.89 a barrel, the first gain in five days. The October contract expired at US$91.87 on Thursday. The front-month price is down 6.2 percent this week, the biggest drop since June 1.
Brent oil for November settlement climbed US$1.39, or 1.3 percent, to end the session at US$111.42 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold futures rose for the fifth straight week, capping the longest rally since February, as monetary stimulus by central banks boosted demand for the metal as a store of value.
Gold futures for December delivery increased 0.4 percent to settle at US$1,778 an ounce on the COMEX in New York. Prices rose 0.3 percent this week, the fifth straight gain and the longest rally since early February.
Silver futures for December delivery fell 0.1 percent to US$34.638 an ounce in New York.
NYMEX platinum futures for October delivery added 0.8 percent to US$1,637.60 an ounce. Palladium futures for December delivery gained 1.6 percent to US$671.55 an ounce.
BASE METALS: Copper futures rose the most in a week on speculation that European officials would unveil a bailout plan for Spain as soon as next week, easing concerns that metal demand would ebb.
Copper futures for December delivery advanced 0.8 percent to close at US$3.789 a pound on the Comex in New York, the biggest gain for a most-active contract since Sept. 14. The metal, down 1.1 percent this week, has climbed 10 percent this year.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months climbed 0.1 percent to US$8,281.50 a tonne.
Zinc, lead, tin, aluminum and nickel also gained.
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