The price of gold raced higher this week, reaching almost US$1,000 an ounce as investors sought a safe haven amid concerns over the strength of economic recovery, analysts said.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold prices surged as high as US$997.80 an ounce, helping to lift silver and platinum to multi-month highs.
“Gold stole the headlines ... as resurgent investment demand pushed the metal to its highs since February,” said James Moore, an analyst for TheBullionDesk.com.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold was up to US$989 an ounce from US$955.50 a week earlier.
Silver jumped to US$15.95 an ounce from US$14.54.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum edged up to US$1,244 an ounce at the late fixing on Friday from US$1,242.
OIL: Crude oil prices slid from above US$70 a barrel this week, tracking stock markets lower.
They continued to fall on Friday after the world’s biggest energy consumer, the US, reported a rise in its unemployment rate and as traders booked profits before a long US holiday weekend.
Elsewhere, oil traders were gearing up for next week’s OPEC ministerial meeting in Vienna to decide on the cartel’s crude production levels. Angola, this year’s president of OPEC, has said the cartel should maintain production at existing levels during the meeting on Wednesday.
After falling sharply at the start of the week following heavy losses on the Chinese stock market, oil prices stabilized on Wednesday as official data showed US crude stocks had dropped by an expected 400,000 barrels.
News of a potential increase in supplies came on Wednesday as British energy major BP said it had made a “giant” oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico after drilling one of the industry’s deepest-ever wells.
By Friday on London’s InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October slumped to US$66.89 a barrel from US$72.85 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for October tumbled to US$67.91 a barrel from US$72.70.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique