Commodity markets diverged this week as dealers took their leads from the unrest in Ukraine and data out of China and the US, the world’s two largest economies.
Many markets were shutting one day earlier than usual owing to a long Easter holiday weekend.
OIL: Prices were mixed as traders weighed escalating Russia-Ukraine tensions, which could affect energy supplies heading West, against news of an expected resumption of Libyan crude exports. Futures were depressed in part by a surge in US crude inventories, but won support from better-than-expected Chinese economic growth data, traders said.
On Thursday, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June traded on London’s Intercontinental Exchange had jumped to US$109.44 a barrel, compared with US$107.78 for the May contract on April 11.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate or light sweet crude for May fell to US$103.85 a barrel from US$104.21.
BASE METALS: China’s growth data lent support to base, or industrial, metals as a winding down of trading for the Easter break prompted profit-taking.
“Sentiment was boosted by first-quarter GDP data from China, which was better than expected,” analysts at brokers Triland Metals said.
Nickel extended recent gains on Indonesia’s ban on exports of the metal that is used to make rechargeable batteries.
Indonesia in January imposed a ban on exports of mineral ore, including nickel, copper and bauxite.
On Thursday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell to US$6,648 a tonne, down from US$6,692 on Friday of the previous week.
Three-month aluminum decreased to US$1,875.50 a tonne from US$1,895, while three-month lead advanced to US$2,143 a tonne from US$2,124.75.
Three-month tin dropped to US$23,445 a tonne from US$23,563, while three-month nickel rallied to US$18,000 a tonne from US$17,464.
Three-month zinc climbed to US$2,071.50 a tonne from US$2,056.75.
PRECIOUS METALS: Prices mainly fell, while the World Gold Council forecast that China’s annual demand for gold could jump about 20 percent by 2017 as more of its increasingly wealthy population seek new ways to make money.
The forecast by the council comes after China became the world’s largest gold-consuming nation last year, overtaking India.
Annual demand for gold in the form of jewelry, coins and bars is set to hit “at least 1,350 tonnes by 2017,” the council said in a report on China.
By Thursday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold dropped to US$1,299 an ounce from US$1,318 on Friday of the previous week.
Silver retreated to US$19.62 an ounce from US$20.09.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum decreased to US$1,437 an ounce from US$1,454.
Palladium gained to US$801 an ounce from US$794.
COFFEE: Futures slid after coffee from the more than two-year highs hit the previous week because of fears of tight supplies following drought in top producer Brazil.
By Thursday on the ICE Futures US exchange, Arabica for delivery in July slumped to US$1.9180 a pound (0.45kg), compared with US$2.0470 for the May contract on Friday of the previous week.
On LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, Robusta for July dropped to US$2,086 a tonne from US$2,140.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts