COMMODITIES
Palladium surpasses record
Spot prices for palladium, last year’s best-performing commodity, have soared above a record that stood for 17 years, driven by growing demand from automakers, which use the metal to reduce vehicle pollution. Palladium on Monday reached a record US$1,139.68 per ounce, extending a 3.6 percent gain on Friday last week, when it hit an all-time high that had stood since 2001. “The rally looks a bit overdone, but that doesn’t mean it can’t run another US$150 or US$200,” research firm Metals Focus Inc director Nikos Kavalis said. The world has not produced as much as it uses since 2012, Kavalis said, with last year’s shortage rising to 1.6 million ounces. The metal is a by-product of platinum and nickel mining, meaning shortages are hard to address, he added.
TOURISM
Thailand sees arrivals boom
Thailand received a record number of foreign tourists in a single month as a boom in arrivals continues. Arrivals last month jumped almost 16 percent from a year earlier to an unprecedented 3.5 million travelers, Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports Permanent Secretary Pongpanu Svetarundra said in a briefing in Bangkok yesterday. He predicted a fresh high this month amid the traditional peak season for tourism. The government is targeting 37 million visitors this year and 3 trillion baht (US$93.8 billion) of revenue from domestic and foreign tourists combined, Pongpanu said. That would be more than one-fifth of the economy.
CURRENCIES
Dollar slide to boost equities
The slide in the US dollar toward its weakest in three years should be helpful for equity markets around the world, State Street Global Markets strategist Michael Metcalfe said yesterday. Dollar depreciation gives central banks incentive to smooth their own currencies’ gains by stocking up on US securities, and several countries have seen their reserves climb to records. Equities could also benefit from attractive valuations and a positive outlook for earnings, Metcalfe said. “Valuations actually aren’t that high — particularly in some Asian markets and emerging markets,” the strategist said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong. “Global liquidity as a whole probably stays on track for a little while,” thanks to the dollar’s weakness, he added.
SOFTWARE
BlackBerry unveils Jarvis
BlackBerry Ltd continued its push into the auto industry with a new product that helps automakers detect security flaws in software before it goes into their vehicles. The system, known as Jarvis, can automatically scan reams of code to look for vulnerabilities, a job that would traditionally be done manually by computer experts, BlackBerry said in statement on Monday. Cars have used software for years, but now more are being connected to the Internet, raising fears hackers could break into them.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin falls most in months
Bitcoin slumped by the most since September last year, giving new impetus to this month’s sell-off in cryptocurrencies, which coincides with rising scrutiny from regulators in many countries. The largest digital coin fell 12 percent to US$12,255 at 9am in London, the lowest level since Dec. 5 last year, according to composite pricing on Bloomberg. Bitcoin was earlier down more than 40 percent from its record high in the middle of last month. Rival cryptocurrencies also tumbled, with Ripple diving as much as 28 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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