Commodity prices mostly fell this week as traders balanced weak Chinese data against signs that the US Federal Reserve could curtail its quantitative easing stimulus policy sooner rather than later.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told US Congress on Wednesday that the US central bank could scale back stimulus measures soon if economic conditions improved.
However, he said any tapering off could only happen once it had confidence that economic gains could be sustained.
OIL: Brent oil prices sank to a three-week low at US$100.64 per barrel on Thursday on the back of poor Chinese economic data and Bernanke’s comments.
Banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC reported that manufacturing activity in China slowed this month for the first time in seven months, in a new sign of the weak recovery of the world’s No. 2 economy.
China’s purchasing managers’ index for the month came in at 49.6, from a final 50.4 last month. A reading above 50 indicates growth and anything below contraction.
Crude futures had fallen on Wednesday following the bearish US oil inventory report and Bernanke’s testimony.
However, US gasoline demand was expected to surge this weekend as the Memorial Day holiday tomorrow starts off the summer vacation driving season.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in July dropped to US$102.27 a barrel compared with US$104.47 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for July sank to US$93.91 a barrel from US$95.64 for the expired next month’s contract one week earlier.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold hit one-month lows, but rebounded into positive territory on Bernanke’s remarks and as dealers sought shelter in the safe-haven precious metal.
By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to US$1,390.25 an ounce from US$1,368.75 a week earlier.
Silver eased to US$22.38 an ounce from US$22.52, while on the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum fell to US$1,455 an ounce from US$1,470 and palladium fell US$729 an ounce from US$736.
COFFEE: Arabica prices struck the lowest level since March 2008 on expectations of abundant supplies from Brazil, dealers said.
“The plentiful supply is continuing to weigh on prices,” Commerzbank analysts said in a note to clients. “The harvest has begun in Brazil and looks set to produce a record crop for a low-yield year.”
By Friday on NYBOT-ICE, Arabica for delivery in July slid to US$0.13040 a pound (0.45kg) from US$0.14050 a week earlier.
On LIFFE, Robusta for July dropped to US$1,978 a tonne from US$2,042.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
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