Oil and base metal prices gained this week as positive US and Chinese economic data fueled higher demand expectations, analysts said.
However, prices lost some of the gains later on after official figures on Friday revealed that US jobs growth had slowed last month.
The US Department of Labor said the US added just 162,000 jobs last month, weighing on gold futures, but unemployment fell to a better-than-expected 7.4 percent.
OIL: World oil prices rallied, with Brent crude reaching a near four-month high of more than US$110 a barrel before giving way to profit-taking in the wake of Friday’s US employment data.
Prices had won support in recent days from US and Chinese economic data, as well as from growing concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East and Africa, traders said.
“Protests in Libya’s oilfields, insurgents targeting Iraq’s pipeline, technical problems and oil thefts in Nigeria [have] brought about worries about the availability of supplies,” Phillip Futures investment analyst Lee Chen Hoay said.
By late on Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month jumped to US$108.92 a barrel from US$106.91 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for next month climbed to US$106.81 a barrel from US$104.36 a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold futures retreated, giving up recent gains on an overall improving US economic outlook despite Friday’s mixed US jobs data.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold dropped to US$1,309.25 an ounce from US$1,331 a week earlier.
Silver fell to US$19.46 an ounce from US$20.02.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum gained to US$1,436 an ounce from US$1,428, while palladium dipped to US$730 an ounce from US$731.
COCOA: Prices extended losses as rainfall in the Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, increased supply expectations.
By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, cocoa for delivery next month fell to £1,569 a tonne from £1,592 a week earlier.
On New York’s NYBOT-ICE exchange, cocoa for next month fell to US$2,294 a tonne from US$2,352.
COFFEE: Futures dropped further on the prospect of a record harvest in leading producer Brazil.
By Friday on NYBOT-ICE, Arabica for delivery in September slid to US$0.11705 a pound (0.45kg) from US$0.12375 a week earlier.
On LIFFE, Robusta for November dropped to US$1,857 a tonne from US$1,935.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained