Commodity prices diverged this week as traders reacted to a mixed demand outlook for raw materials.
OIL: World oil prices rose this week as traders eyed demand concerns, the US dollar and hopes of global economic recovery.
“The continued economic optimism buoyed the oil price above the mark of US$82 per barrel,” Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said.
Crude oil began the week with slender gains on Monday as the euphoria faded from upbeat US jobs data that had boosted prices the previous week.
The market then drifted lower on Tuesday, under pressure from a stronger greenback, which makes dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies, and tends to dent demand.
But prices rose on Wednesday after news of a drop in crude oil and distillate stockpiles in the US that suggested stronger demand in the world’s largest energy consumer as it emerges from recession.
By late Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), Texas light sweet crude for delivery in April was up at US$82.42 from US$81.86 a week earlier.
Brent North Sea crude for April rose to US$80.56 from US$80.33 on London’s IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).
BASE METALS: Copper prices retreated on fears of a drop in Chinese demand. Prices had jumped the previous week on better-than-expected US jobs data and following a massive earthquake in Chile, the world’s largest producer of copper.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell to US$7,493 a tonne from US$7,600 the previous week.
Three-month aluminum fell to US$2,243 a tonne from US$2,258.
PRECIOUS METALS: Palladium was the star performer among precious metals, hitting a two-year high of US$480 an ounce, before ending the week lower on profit-taking.
By Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold fell to US$1,106.25 an ounce from US$1,135 the previous week.
Silver rose to US$17.31 an ounce from US$17.25.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum jumped to US$1,619 an ounce from US$1,578.
Palladium dipped to US$464 an ounce from US$466.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)