■ GOLD
Gold prices open higher
Hong Kong gold prices opened higher yesterday, benefiting from its appeal as a safe-haven investment amid a spike in oil prices and weakness in the US dollar, analysts said. The precious metal opened at US$865.35 an ounce, up from Thursday's close of US$857.25. Overnight in New York, the yellow metal hit an all-time high of US$870 an ounce after oil prices broke the symbolic US$100 mark for the second straight day on worries about tight supplies and US currency weakness. Oil struck a fresh all-time record of US$100.09 per barrel in early US floor trading but then settled back to close at US$99.18.
■ ELECTRONICS
TomTom shares plunge
Shares in navigation device maker TomTom NV fell sharply on Thursday after a major European electronics retailer issued a profit warning. TomTom's shares dropped 7.3 percent to 47.95 euros (US$70.35) in the wake of the warning by DSG International PLC, Europe's second-largest consumer electronics retail chain. "Demand for [personal] satellite navigation devices has been flat" in the fourth quarter at DSG's stores, spokesman Mark Webb said. "Historically, at least for the last 18 months, there's been fairly dramatic growth."
■ AIRCRAFT
Bombardier picks up orders
Bombardier Inc announced the sale on Thursday of four aircraft to Libyan Airlines and the Spanish government in deals valued at approximately US$136 million. The Libyan carrier signed a firm order for two CRJ900 NextGen regional jets. The order is a conversion of the two options taken with its initial order for three CRJ900 aircraft in June. All three previously ordered planes have been delivered. "With this order, we are continuing our fleet renewal program with state-of-the-art aircraft," Libyan Airlines chairman Tarek Arebi said. The world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer also announced that two more amphibious aircraft have been ordered by the Spanish government in a deal worth approximately US$60 million.
■ AIRCRAFT
Boeing in deliveries record
Boeing Co delivered 441 planes last year, nearly 10 percent more than the year before, and is expected to blow past a previous record when it announces last year's commercial jet order total. Rival Airbus SAS is on pace to beat Boeing on deliveries. As of Nov. 30, Airbus had delivered 410 planes. Chicago-based Boeing, which delivered 112 planes in the fourth quarter of last year, had predicted it would deliver 440 to 445 planes last year, while Airbus has projected it would deliver 450 to 460. Analysts also expected Airbus to come out ahead of Boeing on orders.
■ MUSIC
US album sales hit hard
US album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, as the beleaguered recording industry marked another weak year of sales despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, figures released on Thursday showed. A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006's unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks point-of-purchase sales. The shortfall in album sales drops to 9.5 percent when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. The number of digital tracks sold, meanwhile, jumped 45 percent to 844.2 million.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from