Commodity prices mainly fell this week in low-volume trade on the back of weak Chinese economic data, while many participants were away for an extended Christmas and New Year break.
Beijing released figures on Friday showing that growth in China’s services sector slowed sharply last month. The data followed news on Wednesday and Thursday that manufacturing in the country had also slowed down last month.
On the upside, precious metals eked out slender gains following heavy losses last year.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold rebounded slightly, having suffered a 28 percent slump last year on the back of weaker demand and easing inflation.
“Gold continues to shine in these early days of 2014,” Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada said. “However, given the low liquidity I am skeptical about this rally, which I think is fueled by position squaring from the sellers who will likely re-emerge at higher prices.”
Last year, gold suffered its first annual loss for 12 years, while silver shed one-third of its value.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to US$1,234.50 an ounce from US$1,214.50 a week earlier, while silver climbed to US$20.18 an ounce from US$19.92.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum increased to US$1,388 an ounce from US$1,374, as palladium advanced to US$723 an ounce from US$711.
OIL: Prices fell, hit hard by news that a Libyan field may come back online and the Chinese data.
The market slumped by about US$3 on Thursday, when a Libyan National Oil Corporation spokesman told reporters on Thursday that the 330,000-barrel-a-day El Sharara field is expected to resume normal output within two or three days, once protesters who have blocked production pull out.
Over the course of last year, Brent crude prices were virtually unchanged, while New York futures have risen more than 12 percent, amid tight supply concerns earlier in the year caused by the threat of US military action on Syria.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month dropped to US$108.25 a barrel from US$111.83 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for the following month fell to US$95.45 a barrel from US$99.62.
RUBBER: Prices in Kuala Lumpur fell further due to inactivity amid year-end festivities.
The Malaysian Rubber Board’s benchmark SMR20 slid to US$0.22550 a kilo from US$0229.25 the previous week.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six