Commodities enjoyed a bright start to the year, with oil bouncing above US$83 and sugar striking a 29-year high as traders eyed recovery hopes despite poor US jobs data.
“We have been highlighting for some time that there is still considerable upside risk to commodity prices in early 2010,” Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said in a research note to clients.
Markets tailed off somewhat on Friday as traders digested news that the US, a major consumer of raw materials, shed more jobs than expected last month.
OIL: The market jumped in the first trading week of the year, largely because of a cold snap across the northern hemisphere which boosted heating fuel demand but players pared gains after a downbeat US jobs report.
New York crude topped US$83 on Wednesday for the first time in 14 months before closing lower on Thursday for the first time in 10 sessions as traders banked profits.
Oil begun the year with a bang on Monday, soaring by more than US$2 as freezing temperatures spread. Reports that Russia had cut supplies to Belarus also helped push prices higher, but officials in Belarus later denied the reports.
Gains for oil tailed off toward the end of the week in the wake of the latest US energy inventory data and the downbeat US non-farm payrolls report.
By late on Friday, New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, rallied to US$82.22 a barrel from US$79.36 on Thursday of the previous week.
London’s Brent North Sea crude for next month advanced to US$81.05 from US$77.93.
PRECIOUS METALS: Platinum and palladium prices soared to equal recent highs after the US launch of exchange traded funds (ETFs) for both metals.
Platinum rallied as high as US$1,578 per ounce, the best level since August 2008 while palladium hit US$434.25 an ounce, the best since July that year.
By Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold rose to US$1,126.75 an ounce, from US$1,104 the previous Thursday before the New Year holiday break.
Silver soared to US$18.12 an ounce from US$16.99.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum soared to US$1,569 an ounce from US$1,466.
Palladium jumped to US$431 an ounce from US$402.
BASE METALS: Base metals diverged but copper hit multi-month highs on news of a strike in key producer Chile which was later settled.
Copper struck US$7,796 per tonne on Thursday, its highest level since August 2008.
By Friday on the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months jumped to US$7,525 a tonne from US$7,408 on Thursday the previous week.
SUGAR: Sugar prices scaled 29-year highs, lifted by predictions of lower output in emerging economic giant India.
By Friday on the New York Board of Trade, the price of unrefined sugar for March rose to US$0.2814 a pound from US$0.2724 on Thursday the previous week.
On LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, the price of a tonne of white sugar for delivery in March climbed to £730.30 from £706.30.
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
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