Crude oil prices rallied this week on upbeat data in top consumer the US and concerns over supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria, dealers said.
Gold ran out of steam and fell from recent peaks as Ukraine tensions eased.
OIL: New York crude began the week on the front foot, rising on Monday as traffic was halted on the Houston Ship Channel, a key petroleum-industry waterway, due to an oil spill.
Prices then jumped further as data showed a fall in crude supplies at a key US trading hub and a surprisingly large decline in gasoline stocks.
The US Energy Information Administration revealed on Wednesday that stockpiles sank by 1.3 million barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma oil-trading hub for the US benchmark.
That was the eighth straight weekly decline and leaves Cushing stockpiles at their lowest level since January 2012.
Meanwhile, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell on Wednesday said it had declared a force majeure on crude from Nigeria as it struggles to repair a sabotaged pipeline.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, accounting for more than 2 million barrels per day.
Force majeure is a legal term releasing a company from contractual obligations when faced with circumstances beyond its control.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May rose to US$108.04 a barrel from US$107.51.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate or light sweet crude for May climbed to US$101.67 per barrel from US$100.13 a week earlier for next month contract.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold sank as investors took profits amid fading geopolitical concerns in Ukraine.
The glamorous metal touched the lowest point for one-and-a-half months at US$1,285.82 per ounce on Friday.
Gold had struck a six-month high at US$1,392.22 per ounce the previous week, as investors sought a haven investment to shelter from Ukraine tensions.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold slid to US$1,294.75 an ounce from US$1,336 a week earlier.
Silver dipped to US$19.71 an ounce from US$20.55.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum reversed to US$1,401 an ounce from US$1,439.
Palladium receded to US$771 an ounce from US$789.
BASE METALS: Base or industrial metals prices diverged as traders balanced weak manufacturing data against hopes of stimulus measures in key consumer China.
HSBC’s flash purchasing managers index for this month came in at 48.1, an eight-month low and down from 48.5 last month.
Anything below 50 indicates contraction while a figure above points to expansion.
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
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],”