Gold prices might have had a lousy month, dropping by the most this year on a resurgent US dollar, but holdings in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have jumped, with the worldwide total rising to the highest level since November last year.
The numbers spell out the different paths. Spot bullion last month sank 2.9 percent, and on Friday slipped 0.4 percent to US$1,282.55 per ounce at 3:30pm in New York.
Meanwhile, holdings in gold-backed ETFs expanded 2.4 percent to 2,154.9 tonnes. They are up for the third straight quarter and well on the way back to last year’s peak, when US President Donald Trump won the White House.
While prices have been hurt by the rebound in the US currency, plenty of investors are still seeking out havens, Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (華僑銀行) economist Barnabas Gan said.
Top of the list right now might be the standoff between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“ETF demand is likely driven by safe-haven demand, given the geopolitical tensions and the increased need to have safe-haven assets in investment portfolios,” Gan said.
Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, has recommended that investors consider placing 5 percent to 10 percent of assets in gold as a hedge against political and economic risks.
Gold traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were bearish for a third straight week.
Gold futures for December delivery on Friday fell 0.3 percent to settle at US$1,284.80 per ounce on the Comex in New York. The metal dropped 2.8 percent last month.
Meanwhile, oil posted its biggest quarterly gain in more than a year on forecasts for rising demand and Turkey’s threat to halt Kurdish crude exports.
Futures last month jumped 9.4 percent and settled at above US$50 per barrel on Friday for the eighth straight session.
OPEC and the International Energy Agency last month boosted demand forecasts, signaling a surplus that has weighed on prices might shrink further.
Iraq on Thursday said that Turkey agreed to deal exclusively with the central government in Baghdad over exports of Kurdish crude, a step that could disrupt supplies.
Oil this week returned to a bull market on signs the persistent crude surplus was finally starting to shrink, while Trafigura Group and Citigroup Inc warned of a further supply squeeze in the next two years.
OPEC and Russia have hailed the success of their agreement to curb supplies and urged allies to stay the course.
The effects of Hurricane Harvey, which shut down a large number of refineries on the US Gulf Coast, have begun to fade.
West Texas Intermediate for delivery next month rose US$0.11 to settle at US$51.67 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices advanced 12 percent during the quarter, the biggest gain since the second quarter of last year.
Brent for settlement next month, which expired on Friday, rose US$0.13 to close at US$57.54 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The price increased 20 percent during the quarter. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of US$5.87 to West Texas Intermediate.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline slid US$0.03 to US$1.61 per gallon, while heating oil declined US$0.02 to US$1.81 per gallon and natural gas gave up US$0.01 to US$3.01 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Silver slid US$0.17 to US$16.68 per ounce, while copper fell US$0.03 to US$2.96 per pound.
Additional reporting by AP
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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