Oil trimmed its third weekly advance as Canadian energy producers moved to resume operations after wildfires eased.
Futures slipped 0.3 percent in New York. Suncor Energy Inc is seeking to return most of its workers by next week and begin startup of oil-sands facilities that were shut down by forest fires, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Prices climbed above US$50 a barrel on Thursday as declining US crude supplies eroded a global glut.
“Finally supply and demand are coming into balance,” said Mark Watkins, the Park City, Utah-based regional investment manager for The Private Client Group of US Bank. “There are going to be headwinds as you near the US$50-US$60 range. Inventories are still high and we have to work them off.”
Oil has surged more than 85 percent in New York since touching a 12-year low in February on signs the worldwide surplus will ease amid declining production in Nigeria, Libya, Canada and the US. OPEC is unlikely to reach any agreement to limit output when it meets on Thursday, as the group sticks with Saudi Arabia’s strategy of squeezing out rivals, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery dropped US$0.15 to close at US$49.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month WTI climbed 3.3 percent this week. Futures touched US$50.21 on Thursday, the highest since Oct. 9. Total volume traded was 43 percent below the 100-day average at 2:45pm.
Brent for July settlement decreased US$0.27, or 0.5 percent, to US$49.32 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Futures rose 1.2 percent this week. The contract reached US$50.51 during trading on Thursday, the highest since Nov. 4. The global benchmark closed at a US$0.01 discount to WTI.
Meanwhile, gold is looking very different than it did at the beginning of this month. Along with platinum, palladium and silver, it is heading for the biggest monthly loss since November last year as investors anticipate higher borrowing costs in the US.
Bullion has pared this year’s rally after retreating more than 5 percent this month as the US dollar rallied and investors raised bets on the US Federal Reserve increasing interest rates as early as next month. Higher rates curb gold’s appeal against interest-bearing assets. US Fed Chair Janet Yellen spoke on Friday at Harvard University, saying an increase in rates in the coming months might be appropriate. The comments come after a number of regional Fed presidents have indicated their willingness to tighten policy.
Gold futures for August delivery dropped 0.5 percent to settle at US$1,216.70 an ounce at 1:47pm on the COMEX in New York. The metal is down 5.7 percent this month.
Holdings in gold-backed exchange-traded funds added 1.5 tonnes to 1,844.9 tonnes as of Thursday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Silver futures for July delivery dropped 0.5 percent to US$16.269 an ounce on the COMEX. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, platinum and palladium declined.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
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