Gold prices zoomed this week to a four-month peak, as investors sought shelter from weak eurozone data and fears of contagion from a bank’s problems in Portugal, dealers said.
However, the oil market sank for the third successive week, pressured by easing supply tensions in Libya and Iraq, they said.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold rallied on sliding European equities, weak eurozone industrial output data and news of a brewing bank crisis in Portugal.
The safe-haven investment hit US$1,345.46 per ounce on Thursday — touching a level last seen on March 19. That pushed sister metal silver to a similar high point at US$21.57 an ounce.
“With poor eurozone data and rumblings out of the Portuguese banking system, traders are shunning appetite for risk, instead booking profits or fleeing to traditional safe-havens such as German and UK government bonds or gold,” ETX Capital analyst Daniel Sugarman said.
Palladium scored a fresh 13-year high at US$877 an ounce on solid demand and despite the end of a strike in South Africa.
Separately, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced on Friday that exchange giant CME Group and news and financial information giant Thomson Reuters would provide a new electronic system for the setting of benchmark silver prices.
The LBMA said after a market consultation that the current system in which a panel of banks agree on a daily silver price “fixing” will be abolished next month to increase transparency.
By Friday on the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to US$1,335 an ounce from US$1,319.25 a week earlier.
Silver increased to US$21.41 an ounce from US$21.12.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum climbed to US$1,506 an ounce from US$1,503.
Palladium advanced to US$867 an ounce from US$866.
OIL: Global oil prices fell heavily, as fears receded about major supply disruptions in the crude-rich Middle East, analysts said.
Sanjeev Gupta, head of the Asia-Pacific oil and gas practice at consultancy firm EY, said prices were hit by the imminent return of disrupted Libyan exports into a global market already awash with supplies.
Brent crude has shed more than US$4 since July 3 after Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani declared that authorities had regained control of two export terminals blockaded by rebels.
By Friday on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August dived to US$106.99 per barrel from US$110.87 one week earlier.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate or light sweet crude for August slid to US$101.35 a barrel from US$103.90.
BASE METALS: Base or industrial metal prices diverged as downbeat Chinese trade data sparked profit-taking, but zinc hammered a near three-year peak at US$2,318.50 on stretched supplies.
“Chinese trade data ... was a little disappointing, which sparked gentle profit taking following the recent gains,” analysts at the Sucden brokerage said, adding China’s copper imports were down 7.9 percent sequentially last month.
China’s monthly trade surplus jumped 16.4 percent last month to US$31.6 billion, official data showed on Thursday. That fell short of the median forecast of US$36.9 billion in a survey of 21 economists by the Wall Street Journal.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months fell to US$7,125 a tonne from US$7,129 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminum rose to US$1,934 tonne from US$1,921 and three-month lead climbed to US$2,194.50 a tonne from US$2,180.
Meanwhile, three-month tin retreated to US$21,963 a tonne from US$22,790 and three-month nickel weakened to US$19,163 a tonne from US$19,500.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS