Commodity prices were boosted this week by the weak US dollar and strong emerging market demand, alongside solid economic growth and expectations of more stimulus measures in the US.
OIL: World oil prices churned higher as traders digested newsflow on the US economy and the faltering dollar.
“The oil market is on standby, struggling for direction,” analyst Myrto Sokou at the Sucden brokerage in London said. “Crude oil prices have consolidated around 82 dollars per barrel ... this week, while investors were prompted to lock in recent profits ahead of the Fed meeting and the mid-term US elections next week.”
By late Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December gained to US$83.31 a barrel from US$82.10 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, Texas light sweet crude for December rose to US$81.70 a barrel from US$80.61.
COTTON: Cotton struck a new record at US$1.3050 a pound in New York, as bad weather hampered harvests in China and the US.
By Friday in New York, cotton for December rose to US$1.2384 a pound (0.45kg) from US$1.1971 a week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold, which hit record peaks earlier this month, continues to enjoy support from its safe-haven status and is on a positive long-term price trend, the World Gold Council said.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold rose to US$1,346.75 an ounce at the late fixing, from US$1,322.50 a week earlier.
Silver gained to US$23.96 an ounce from US$23.05.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum rose to US$1,700 an ounce from US$1,673.
Palladium rallied to US$640 an ounce from US$586.
BASE METALS: Copper hit a two-year peak, while zinc and lead forged their highest levels since January, before the industrial metals ran into profit-taking and fell as the greenback staged a modest rebound.
By late Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell to US$8,198 a tonne from US$8,330 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum eased to US$2,340 a tonne from US$2,382.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS