Gold jumped to a seven-week high after a report showed that the US economy added fewer jobs than forecast, easing concerns that the US Federal Reserve will soon pare back stimulus. Nickel and aluminum led gains in most base metals.
Data on Friday showed that the US non-farm payrolls increased 235,000 last month, the smallest gain in seven months and well below economists’ forecasts.
The US dollar fell after the report, boosting demand the appeal of metals for investors holding other currencies.
Bullion has struggled this year amid a global economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has raised the prospect of central banks reining in massive monetary stimulus.
Spot gold on Friday rose 1.1 percent to US$1,829.09 an ounce in New York, after touching US$1,834.04, the highest since July 15. The precious metal gained 0.9 percent this week.
Silver jumped as much as 4 percent on Friday. Platinum and palladium also climbed.
In base metals, aluminum added 1.3 percent to US$2,730 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, posting a second weekly gain. The metal climbed to a 10-year high this week as Chinese supply was constrained by an electricity savings drive.
Copper rose 0.7 percent in London and nickel climbed 2.1 percent. Tin and lead dropped.
RHODIUM
The rise of rhodium, the world’s most expensive precious metal, has made it the No. 1 revenue stream of the biggest platinum miners.
While the metal is well shy of its March peak, rhodium still accounted for 45 percent of Anglo American Platinum Ltd’s first-half revenues. That is more than platinum and palladium put together.
For parent Anglo American PLC, the metal generated more revenue than the diamonds mined by its De Beers business or the copper it extracts in Chile and Peru.
The scarcity of rhodium — a byproduct of platinum and palladium mining — and its unparalleled ability to curb nitrogen oxides from vehicle exhaust fumes pushed up prices as stricter pollution laws boost demand.
In March, it climbed to a record US$29,800 an ounce, making it 17 times more valuable than gold. Originally used for decoration or as corrosion-resistant coating, rhodium has also become the biggest export for South Africa, which produces more than 80 percent of global supply.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six