Commodity prices diverged this week, with New York oil striking an October-peak and gold futures hitting five-month lows as markets tracked positive US economic data, including Friday’s jobs numbers.
The US jobless rate fell to 7 percent last month — a five-year low — official data showed, raising the odds that the US Federal Reserve could soon cut its huge stimulus program. The sharp drop in the rate from 7.3 percent in October was unexpected and came as the economy generated a solid 203,000 jobs.
Analysts said the strength of the jobs report could give the Fed more reason to begin cutting back its bond-buying.
OIL: Crude future surged on Friday, but also earlier in the week, as Washington reported an unexpected weekly drop in US crude oil inventories, the first decline since mid-September.
“The series of good data releases may hint [at] greater appetite for oil by the US as demand will be boosted by increasing economic activities,” Phillip Futures investment analyst Tan Chee Tat said.
US prices won support also on the announcement that part of the Keystone pipeline in the US, would open next month, bringing oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Texas refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.
The market this week also reacted to OPEC’s decision on oil output. The organization, which pumps out one-third of the world’s crude, agreed to hold its crude production ceiling at 30 million barrels per day despite oversupply concerns and competition from cheaper shale oil.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month climbed to US$111.20 a barrel from US$110.93 a week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate, or light sweet crude, for next month rallied to US$97.43 a barrel from US$93.58.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold tumbled to US$1,210.60 an ounce — the lowest level in five months — in the wake of Friday’s strong US jobs data, before recovering.
By late on Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold dropped to US$1,233 an ounce from US$1,253 a week earlier, while silver slipped to US$19.49 an ounce from US$19.93.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum slipped to US$1,367 an ounce from US$1,376, as palladium jumped to US$741 an ounce from US$724.
COCOA: Prices ended lower after reaching fresh two-year high points at the start of the week owing to tight supplies of the raw material.
By Friday on LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, cocoa for delivery in March fell to ￡1,736 a tonne, from ￡1,750 a week earlier.
On ICE Futures US, cocoa for March slipped to US$2,774 a tonne from US$2,789 a week earlier.
RUBBER: Prices rose on the back of positive economic data from China, the world’s biggest buyer of rubber, and owing to supply delays caused by mass anti-government protests in Bangkok, traders said.
The Malaysian Rubber Board’s benchmark SMR20 climbed to US$0.23075 US a kilogram from US$0.23015 the previous week.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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