Gold on Friday hit a more than three-week high, amid speculation that the US Federal Reserve could slow the pace of interest rate increases as the US economy slows.
Bullion’s climb, supported by a weaker US dollar and declining US Treasury yields, saw spot gold gain about 0.4 percent to US$1,762.50 an ounce to post a second straight weekly gain.
While the Fed raised rates by 75 basis points again this week, data showing that the US is in a technical recession signaled that the central bank could become less aggressive as it continues to combat inflation.
Despite the recent rebound, gold recorded a fourth straight monthly loss.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen gave a glass-half-full assessment of the economy, acknowledging a slowdown she called necessary to tame inflation, while rejecting the notion the country had entered a recession.
“Gold bugs are falling like dominoes, but given the slowing trend in growth, [US Fed Chairman Jerome] Powell catalyzed a short covering rally across all assets by tying a jumbo-sized September hike to data. Gold markets are set-up for additional price weakness to ensue,” TD Securities senior strategist Daniel Ghali said in a note.
Investors are likely to turn their focus to next week’s monthly jobs report from the US government, which is forecast to show another solid month of hiring.
Powell said the labor market remains “extremely tight,” referencing a near-record number of job openings and historically low unemployment.
“If the US economic data turn out to be weaker next week, gold is likely to make further gains,” Commerzbank AG analyst Carsten Fritsch said in a note.
“This applies in particular to the report on the labor market, as Fed Chair Powell has still been describing the market as robust, which besides the persistently high inflation is another argument in favor of further rate hikes,” Fritsch said.
Other commodities:
‧Silver for September delivery rose US$0.33 to US$20.20 an ounce, up 8.49 percent from a week earlier, while September copper rose US$0.10 to US$3.57 a pound, gaining 6.57 percent weekly.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AP
POTENTIAL SETBACK: Although Chinese chip designers and foundry firms already have US EDA software, they might be unable to update those programs under new US rules The US’ latest ban on advanced electronic design automation (EDA) software exports to China might hinder Chinese chip companies from accessing advanced semiconductor technology, as they attempt to upgrade to 3-nanometer processes in the next three to five years, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Friday announced bans on EDA tools for gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFET), a new-generation semiconductor technology that US chipmaker Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co from South Korea are adopting to make 4-nanometer and 3-nanometer chips. The bureau in a statement said that gate-all-around field-effect transistor
WIDENING THE FIELD: Human resources managers must drop prejudices regarding gender, appearance and age to find the best candidates, Micro Technology said The job market for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry remained tight this quarter, as hiring activity slowed from a record high last quarter, a survey released yesterday by online human resource firm 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) showed. Ongoing labor shortages have prompted local semiconductor firms to recruit more women and foreigners in Taiwan and in Southeast Asia, the job bank said. The talent gap in the first quarter reached 35,000 people per month, a surge of 39.8 percent from the same period last year, as the contactless economy and digital transformation shore up demand for semiconductors, 104 Job Bank said in its annual report
POSITIVE CULTURE: Pursuing 12-inch wafers earlier than peers helped TSMC lead the industry, said a former executive, whose main regret was working for SMIC in China Corporate culture at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is what made the chipmaker a leading player in the global industry, a former executive said in an interview with California’s Computer History Museum. “One of the really important reasons that TSMC succeeded” is the culture at the firm, where “if equipment went down at two o’clock in the morning, we just called an equipment engineer,” and the worker would not complain, said former TSMC joint chief operating officer Chiang Shan-yi (蔣尚義). “We didn’t really do anything special, anything great, but we didn’t make any major mistakes,” when compared with competitors, such
Cloud computing equipment company Wiwynn Corp (緯穎科技), which counts Meta Platforms Inc as one of its key customers, is boosting capacity expansion in Malaysia through a new investment of about NT$1.94 billion (US$64.7 million), it said yesterday in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The investment, which aims to help the company with business development and strategic arrangements, would be made through subsidiary Wiwynn Technology Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd to build a new factory, Wiwynn said in the filing. The announcement came about one-and-a-half months after the company started phase II of its new server printed circuit board assembly (PCBA)
RSS