Gold rocketed to an all-time high this week after China announced that it would relax its currency’s peg to the US dollar, while coffee scored a 12-year peak on the back of tight supplies.
After initial gains on the China news, many commodities slid as downbeat US data highlighted a faltering US economy and sparked questions about the outlook for demand in the world’s biggest energy consuming nation.
PRECIOUS METALS: The price of gold soared to a new historic record of US$1,265.30 per ounce at the start of the week.
“Gold opened Monday in a steady mood, holding ground above 1,255 across the early part of the day and setting a fresh peak of 1,265.30,” said analyst James Moore at specialist metals Web site TheBullionDesk.com.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold prices were at US$1,254 an ounce from US$1,256 the previous week.
Silver eased to US$18.65 an ounce from US$18.77.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum slipped to US$1,549 an ounce from US$1,578.
Palladium declined to US$466 an ounce from US$484.
OIL: Crude oil had rallied on Monday after China announced that it would relax the yuan’s US dollar peg, and also ended the week higher on supply fears about stormy weather in the Caribbean.
The booming export-geared Chinese economy is leading the global recovery from recession and is considered the key driver of energy demand as the world’s second-largest oil-consuming nation, after the US.
The oil market pulled back on Tuesday as renewed economic recovery concerns resurfaced.
By late on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for delivery in August rose to US$78.55 a barrel from US$77.26 for the July contract one week earlier.
On the Intercontinental Exchange in London, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery eased to US$78.00 from US$78.49.
BASE METALS: Base metal prices mainly rose, boosted by positive news from China.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose to US$6,630 a tonne from US$6,365 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum edged up to US$1,976 a tonne from US$1,960.
COFFEE: Coffee surged to a 12-year pinnacle in New York, propelled by simmering worries over tight supplies.
“Prices ... are at their loftiest level in 12 years, with continued concerns on low stocks and supply tightness from Central America outweighing expectations of a record Brazilian harvest in the second half,” Barclays Capital analyst Sudakshina Unnikrishnan said.
In New York, Arabica for September jumped to US$1.7650 a pound (0.45kg) — striking a level that was last seen in February 1998.
By Friday on LIFFE — London’s futures exchange — Robusta for delivery in September jumped to US$1,667 a tonne from US$1,560 the previous week.
On the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), Arabica for July advanced to US$1.6730 a pound from US$1.6055.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has