Investors left the second-largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking gold as climbing interest rates dimmed the precious metal’s appeal as a safe haven.
The US$12 billion iShares Gold Trust had about US$170 million in outflows on Wednesday, the most since March last year.
The ETF has taken in almost three times as much cash this year as its larger competitor, the US$36 billion SPDR Gold Shares fund.
Gold has struggled to hold onto its gains this year as the US dollar strengthens and borrowing costs in the US rise, hurting the appeal of the non-interest bearing metal.
Spot gold on Friday fell 0.4 percent to US$1,293.60 an ounce, down 0.8 percent from last week’s US$1.304.48.
COSTLY COTTON
Apparel retailers are finally winning back shoppers just as a new potential problem arises: more expensive cotton.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co is keeping an eye on rising cotton prices and the retailer’s supply chain teams are working to try to offset the costs, the company said on a conference call on Friday after reporting first-quarter earnings.
Retailers have begun to bounce back from a shift away from apparel by consumers, who are spending more of their money on experiences and technology.
Now, after a first quarter when many clothing companies saw improved demand, commodity prices might hamper that good news.
Cotton futures on Tuesday surged to a four-year high in New York as heavy storms and chilly weather exacerbated concerns about supplies at a time of record demand.
Drought conditions in top grower Texas might lead farmers to abandon crops above average rates.
Meanwhile, cold snaps in China and dryness in India might curb Asian production.
Futures for December delivery on Friday rose as much as 1.5 percent, and the fiber posted its seventh weekly gain, the longest rally since March 2013.
Cotton has climbed 17 percent this year after surging a combined 30 percent in the past three years.
SOUTHERN AIMS HIGH
Southern Copper Corp is preparing to scale the ranking of global producers by spending more than US$10 billion in Peru and Mexico, taking advantage of rising prices underpinned by years of industry belt-tightening.
The fifth-largest copper producer hopes to start work on its Tia Maria project in Peru next year as community resistance eases, chief financial officer Raul Jacob said on Thursday in an interview from Lima.
Based on the economic benefits it will bring, a majority of the local population now supports Tia Maria, he said.
Still, the company said it would not go ahead until the social conditions are right.
It is looking to add education programs to its health initiatives in the area to help build community support.
The project was stalled by deadly protests in 2015.
Together with investments in Mexico, the company wants to lift capacity to 1.7 million tonnes by 2025 from about 900,000 tonnes, leapfrogging Glencore PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd to become the No. 3 producer of the red metal, Jacob said.
Copper on Friday fell 0.2 percent at the London Metal Exchange to US$6,840 per tonne, down 0.6 percent for the week.
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],”