Oil sank this week on receding fears of a US-led military strike against Syria, as gold hit a one-month low driven by hopes of an end to US Federal Reserve stimulus.
Investors kept a keen eye on developments in the crude-rich Middle East, as Washington and Moscow discuss a plan to remove Syria’s chemical weapons.
Market expectations are growing that the Fed will begin from tapering its quantitative easing program next week.
The US central bank will hold its key monetary policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
OIL: The oil market fell on easing worries over a possible strike against Syria, having risen strongly in the previous two weeks due to worries of a potential conflict.
New York crude struck US$112.24 a barrel at the end of last month, the highest level for more than two years.
Although Syria is not a major oil producer, traders are nervous about a broader conflict in the crude-rich Middle East, including Iraq, which is becoming a major exporter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Syria was serious about giving up its chemical weapons, as Moscow and Washington entered a second day of talks aimed at averting US-led military action.
“Oil has shed some 3 percent of its value since Monday as what many perceived to be a flippant remark by US Secretary of State John Kerry last week at a foreign office press conference has lead to what may be a face-saving breakthrough for the [US President Barack] Obama administration in the Syrian situation,” Inenco analyst Joe Conlan said.
Oil was also supported by fresh reports of supply disruptions in crude exporter Libya after the country’s National Oil Corporation on Thursday declared force majeure on three ports.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month dropped to US$111.90 per barrel from US$116 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for this month sank to US$107.58 a barrel, from US$110.16.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold hit a one-month low on easing Syria fears, falling US jobless claims and mounting expectations of Fed tapering.
Gold tumbled in intra-day deals on Friday to US$1,305.04, which was the lowest level since Aug. 8. That dragged sister metal silver to a similar low at US$21.40.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell to US$1,318.50 per ounce from US$1,387 a week earlier, as silver slipped to US$21.72 from US$23.05.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dipped to US$1,441 an ounce from US$1,498, while palladium firmed to US$700 from US$699.
COCOA: Prices hit one-year peak as traders eyed supply-side uncertainty in west Africa, a key producing region of the commodity.
By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, cocoa for delivery in March rallied to £1,700 a tonne compared with £1,691 a week ago.
On New York’s NYBOT-ICE exchange, cocoa for December climbed to US$2,595 a tonne from US$2,561 a week earlier.
RUBBER: Prices fell due to the strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar and weak demand.
The Malaysian Rubber Board’s benchmark SMR20 declined to US$0.2385 per kilogram from US$0.2457 the previous week.
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