World commodity markets were rocked this week by weak data in the US, a leading consumer of raw materials, which cast doubt on the prospect of a global economic recovery.
OIL: Crude oil hit eight-month peaks on Tuesday, before tumbling lower as weak US jobs data quashed hopes of a speedy economic recovery.
The market was also pulled lower by the strengthening greenback which makes dollar-priced commodities — like oil — more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies, which in turn dampens demand and pulls prices lower.
“Crude markets were ... lower as market participants continued to digest US employment data in subdued conditions with US markets closed for US Independence Day,” Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar said on Friday.
Meanwhile oil market officials here launched a probe into an alleged rogue trader who earlier this week helped push prices to eight-month peaks, costing his company nearly US$10 million.
PRECIOUS METALS: Prices mostly fell in line with the stronger dollar ahead of the US Independence Day holiday weekend.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold dipped to US$932.50 an ounce from US$942 a week earlier. Silver fell to US$13.44 an ounce from US$14.26.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum sank to US$1,185 an ounce at the late fixing on Friday from US$1,203.
Palladium firmed to US$250 an ounce from US$245.
GRAINS AND SOYA: Grains and soya prices were subdued ahead of an early close on Thursday because of a US public holiday on Friday.
By Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade, maize for delivery in December sank to US$3.57 a bushel from US$4.04 on Friday the previous week.
November-dated soyabean meal — used in animal feed — firmed to US$10.06 from US$9.91.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
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