Commodity prices traded mixed this week as dealers took their cue from a backdrop of weak global economic growth and geopolitical tensions, notably in the Middle East.
OIL: Crude oil prices retreated as weak energy demand offset potential supply risks caused by geopolitical tensions fueled by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Prices were lower overall despite a midweek bounce on the back of the Middle East violence.
By Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or light sweet crude for December dipped to US$85.09 a barrel from US$85.74 a week earlier.
On London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January stood at US$107.83 a barrel compared with US$108.23 for the expired December contract a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold prices fell as the World Gold Council said global demand for the metal had dropped 11 percent in the third quarter on an annual basis, with buying in key market China dipping because of its slowing economy.
Worldwide demand fell 1,084.6 tonnes, worth an estimated US$57.6 billion, as prices on average were 3 percent lower than the record levels seen a year earlier, the council’s latest report said.
Platinum futures eased as weak demand expectations helped offset a prediction by industrial group Johnson Matthey that world output would slide by 10 percent this year owing to unrest at South African mines.
Anglo American Platinum this week said workers had returned to its South Africa mines after accepting a new wage offer, ending a two-month strike that crippled production.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold fell to US$1,713.50 an ounce from US$1,738.25 a week earlier.
Silver rose to US$32.27 an ounce from US$32.16.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dipped to US$1,554 an ounce from US$1,559.
Palladium increased to US$623 an ounce from US$612.
BASE METALS: Base or industrial metal prices rose across the board, while traders reacted to news that the Chinese Communist Party had unveiled a new seven-man leadership council to take command for the next decade.
China, the world’s second-biggest economy, is a major consumer of commodities and especially base metals.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months climbed to US$7,581 a tonne from US$7,534 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum was up at US$1,936 a tonne from US$1,907, while three-month lead gained to US$2,147 a tonne from US$2,141.
Three-month nickel advanced to US$16,023 a tonne from US$15,970, and three-month zinc improved to US$1,921 a tonne from US$1,889.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to