Brent crude oil sank this week to an eight-month low, hit by the poor outlook after a raft of demand forecast downgrades and in line with the stronger US dollar, analysts said.
Precious metal gold also dived to under US$1,500 per ounce, reaching its lowest level since July 2011 on the back of speculation that Cyprus could sell reserves.
Other commodities turned in a mixed performance as traders also eyed the latest developments on the Cyprus debt crisis.
EU finance ministers formally approved the terms of a Cyprus bailout on Friday, after some confusion over whether it needed revision, saying it could now go ahead once cleared by national parliaments.
OIL: London’s Brent North Sea crude slumped on Friday to US$102.12 per barrel, which was the lowest point since July 13 last year.
The market was rocked by forecast downgrades for this year from OPEC, the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration.
Crude futures fell on Thursday after the agency projected that global oil demand would grow by 795,000 barrels per day to a total of 90.6 million barrels a day this year.
The figure is slightly lower than its previous outlook, as a fall in European demand partially offset growth elsewhere.
“Perhaps the most significant element of all three reports has been demand pessimism, implying doubts about global GDP growth this year,” PVM oil analyst David Hufton said.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month tumbled to US$102.12 a barrel from US$104.82 the previous week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for next month slid to US$91.19 a barrel from US$92.27.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold tumbled as low as US$1,492.68 ounce on Friday, hit by the strong US dollar and speculation over the sale of Cyprus reserves.
“Cyprus holds 13.9 tonnes of gold valued at US$697 million. The European Commission assessment earmarked 400 million euros [US$520 million] of gold for disposal, the equivalent of 10.4 tonnes,” Barclays analyst Suki Cooper said.
The US dollar strengthened after minutes to the latest US Federal Reserve policy meeting showed an increase in sentiment toward reeling in its quantitative easing bond-buying this year.
The stronger greenback makes US dollar-priced raw materials more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold eased to US$1,535.50 an ounce from US$1,568 the previous week.
Silver rose to US$27.40 an ounce from US$26.97.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dipped to US$1,514 an ounce from US$1,531, while palladium reversed to US$715.50 an ounce from US$720.
COFFEE: Prices advanced as a tree fungus in Central America continued to hit crops.
“In its latest monthly report, the International Coffee Organization writes that the crops lost to the Roya fungus in Central America will be offset by higher production in other countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia,” Commerzbank analysts said. “The fungal disease threatens to reduce the harvest in the affected countries by at least 2.3 million bags in total.”
Leaf rust causea coffee trees to produce fewer, lower-quality beans.
By Friday on LIFFE, Robusta for delivery in July rose to US$2,056 per tonne from US$2,003 for the May contract the previous week.
On NYBOT-ICE, Arabica for July firmed to US$0.139 a pound (0.45kg) from US$0.13895 for next month.
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
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day