Commodity markets diverged this week as metals benefitted from better-than-expected US jobs data, while oil futures were hit by easing supply strains.
OIL: Crude futures slid on easing concerns about supply in Iraq and Libya, but losses were capped by evidence of healthy demand in the world’s top oil consumer, the US, traders said.
Crude prices began sliding this week on Wednesday after Interim Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani said authorities had regained control of export terminals blockaded by rebels. Production in the OPEC member has been severely limited for a year after rebels last summer blockaded terminals as part of a campaign to restore autonomy in the country’s eastern region. Its output stands at about a fifth of its normal production.
Concerns over a possible supply disruption due to Iraq’s security crisis have also eased.
Islamist militants have overrun swathes of territory in Iraq in a lightning offensive since June 9, but have so far not yet directly threatened the key oil-producing region in the country’s south.
Crude price losses were capped by a bigger-than-expected drop in US inventories.
The US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said US commercial crude inventories fell 3.2 million barrels last week, almost twice the amount predicted by analysts.
Meanwhile the US Department of Labor on Thursday said the US economy added 288,000 jobs last month, well above expectations of 215,000, cutting the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent from 6.3 percent in May.
Also supporting prices was China and Japan manufacturing expanding last month.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month slid to US$110.87 a barrel from US$113.18 one week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for next month dropped to US$103.90 a barrel from US$105.55.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold hit three-month highs before losing some of its gains because of the positive US jobs data.
Palladium hit a 13-year high at US$866.85 an ounce on solid demand and strikes in South Africa, where engineering and metals workers rejected a wage hike offer to end the country’s largest-ever strike, firms said on Friday.
By Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold rose to US$1,319.25 an ounce from US$1,317.50 a week earlier, as silver hit US$21.12 from US$21.04.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum climbed to US$1,503 an ounce from US$1,479, while palladium rose to US$866 from US$839.
COCOA: Prices steadied amid signs of a healthy crop in Ivory Coast, the world’s top producer.
By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, cocoa for delivery in September eased to £1,919 a tonne from £1,924 a week earlier.
On the ICE Futures US exchange, cocoa for September fell to US$3,100 from US$3,108.
RUBBER: Prices in Kuala Lumpur fell as the ringgit strengthened against the US dollar and due to concerns about demand in top rubber consumer China.
The Malaysian Rubber Board’s benchmark SMR20 dropped to US$0.17435 a kilo from US$0.17865 a week earlier.
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