Commodity prices mainly retreated this week, pressured by a tough economic climate highlighted in part by weakening growth in the world’s second-biggest economy China, market observers said.
Heading into the weekend, all eyes were on the EU, whose leaders on Friday agreed to police thousands of eurozone banks beginning next year as they sought to boost growth in austerity-battered states.
By the close of a two-day summit, France and Germany had patched up differences over how to beat the debt crisis, although the new watchdog for 6,000 banks will come too late to re-float Spanish lenders via a dedicated rescue fund.
Leaders also hailed a 120 billion euro (US$155 billion) package of measures to try and kickstart a climb out of recession as political unrest hits Greece and Spain.
OIL: Crude prices came under pressure from official data that revealed slowing economic growth in China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, which added to weak oil demand in the US, traders said.
China’s economic growth eased for the seventh straight quarter, official data showed on Thursday, but analysts said the slowdown had almost bottomed out.
On Wednesday, the US Department of Energy announced that crude supplies in the US — the world’s largest oil consumer — jumped by 2.86 million barrels in the week ending on Oct. 12, more than twice the amount forecast by analysts.
Oil prices had fallen at the start of the week as a lower demand outlook offset Middle East supply risks caused by tensions between Syria and Turkey, analysts said.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December stood at US$112.82 a barrel compared with US$114.73 for next month’s expired contract a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for next month dipped to US$92.08 a barrel, from US$92.24 a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Prices retreated, mirroring sentiment across many commodity markets, but analysts said gold was set to win fresh support over the next months.
“We suspect that further gains for gold will require a new catalyst as the US dollar recovers more ground and inflation expectations drop back,” Capital Economics economist Julian Jessop said. “But that catalyst is likely to come soon in the form of a renewed escalation of the crisis in the eurozone and a revival of safe haven demand.”
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold dipped to US$1,737 an ounce from US$1,766.75 a week earlier.
Silver fell to US$33.33 an ounce from US$33.79.
COCOA: Prices rebounded from three-month low points despite data pointing to falling demand for chocolate in the US and Europe.
Cocoa futures had fallen the previous week on supply worries in No. 1 producer Ivory Coast.
By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, cocoa for delivery in December climbed to £1,608 a tonne from £1,524 a week earlier.
On New York’s NYBOT-ICE exchange, cocoa for December grew to US$2,483 a tonne from US$2,360.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last