The price of gold struck a record high above US$1,250 an ounce this week as investors nervous about the weak state of the global economy sought safety in the precious metal.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold rose to US$1,252.11 an ounce on Tuesday.
“Gold rallied to a new all-time high as worried investors continue to pile in to the precious metal,” said Rajesh Patel, head trader at financial betting firm Spread Co. “We are seeing continued signs of stress in the financial markets and investors, novice to expert are looking at gold now as a hedge against further turmoil.”
Prices fell late in the week “as the euro gained traction against the dollar and equity markets gathered upward momentum as macro data continue to set the tone of trading for the precious metals,” Barclay Capital analyst Suki Cooper said.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold prices rose to US$1,220 an ounce from US$1,203.50 the previous week.
Silver climbed to US$18.31 an ounce from US$17.76.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum gained to US$1,539 an ounce from US$1,527. Palladium advanced to US$449 an ounce from US$440.
OIL: Crude oil prices soared, briefly topping US$76 on Thursday, on the back of some optimism over the economy and world energy demand, traders said.
By late on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for delivery in July leapt to US$74.69 a barrel from US$71.78 a week earlier.
On London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for July delivery soared to US$75.04 from US$72.58.
BASE METALS: Base metals prices rose, aided by strong Chinese economic data.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months climbed to US$6,480 a tonne from US$6,292 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum rose to US$1,956 a tonne from US$1,890.
Three-month lead increased to US$1,690 a tonne from US$1,602.
COCOA: Cocoa futures slid, one week after reaching 33-year highs of £2,606 a tonne owing to tight supplies.
By Friday on London’s futures exchange, the price of cocoa for delivery in July fell to £2,455 a tonne from £2,581 the previous week.
On the New York Board of Trade, the September cocoa contract dipped to US$2,944 a tonne from US$2,982.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
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