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World Business Quick Take

■ GOLD

Gold prices open higher

Hong Kong gold prices opened higher yesterday, benefiting from its appeal as a safe-haven investment amid a spike in oil prices and weakness in the US dollar, analysts said. The precious metal opened at US$865.35 an ounce, up from Thursday's close of US$857.25. Overnight in New York, the yellow metal hit an all-time high of US$870 an ounce after oil prices broke the symbolic US$100 mark for the second straight day on worries about tight supplies and US currency weakness. Oil struck a fresh all-time record of US$100.09 per barrel in early US floor trading but then settled back to close at US$99.18.



■ ELECTRONICS

TomTom shares plunge

Shares in navigation device maker TomTom NV fell sharply on Thursday after a major European electronics retailer issued a profit warning. TomTom's shares dropped 7.3 percent to 47.95 euros (US$70.35) in the wake of the warning by DSG International PLC, Europe's second-largest consumer electronics retail chain. "Demand for [personal] satellite navigation devices has been flat" in the fourth quarter at DSG's stores, spokesman Mark Webb said. "Historically, at least for the last 18 months, there's been fairly dramatic growth."



■ AIRCRAFT

Bombardier picks up orders

Bombardier Inc announced the sale on Thursday of four aircraft to Libyan Airlines and the Spanish government in deals valued at approximately US$136 million. The Libyan carrier signed a firm order for two CRJ900 NextGen regional jets. The order is a conversion of the two options taken with its initial order for three CRJ900 aircraft in June. All three previously ordered planes have been delivered. "With this order, we are continuing our fleet renewal program with state-of-the-art aircraft," Libyan Airlines chairman Tarek Arebi said. The world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer also announced that two more amphibious aircraft have been ordered by the Spanish government in a deal worth approximately US$60 million.



■ AIRCRAFT

Boeing in deliveries record

Boeing Co delivered 441 planes last year, nearly 10 percent more than the year before, and is expected to blow past a previous record when it announces last year's commercial jet order total. Rival Airbus SAS is on pace to beat Boeing on deliveries. As of Nov. 30, Airbus had delivered 410 planes. Chicago-based Boeing, which delivered 112 planes in the fourth quarter of last year, had predicted it would deliver 440 to 445 planes last year, while Airbus has projected it would deliver 450 to 460. Analysts also expected Airbus to come out ahead of Boeing on orders.



■ MUSIC

US album sales hit hard

US album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, as the beleaguered recording industry marked another weak year of sales despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, figures released on Thursday showed. A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006's unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks point-of-purchase sales. The shortfall in album sales drops to 9.5 percent when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. The number of digital tracks sold, meanwhile, jumped 45 percent to 844.2 million.
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