Gold slipped after the biggest weekly advance in three months, with central-bank purchasing patterns in focus.
Bullion traded near US$2,380 an ounce after rallying by almost 3 percent last week, and while the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) did not add gold to its reserves for a second month last month, a report from India suggested the nation’s central bank probably increased its bullion reserves by the most in almost two years.
“Some pullback in gold prices” should not be ruled out following the PBOC data, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp foreign-exchange strategist Christopher Wong (黃經隆) said. “But it is not uncommon for China to temporarily halt purchases, given that gold prices have rallied quite sharply.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Gold has soared this year — hitting a record in May — as central-bank buying lifted prices, with policymakers in countries including India, China and Singapore seeking to diversify reserves.
The precious metal has also been supported by bets the US Federal Reserve would start to cut interest rates as inflation cools, as well as geopolitical tensions.
Bullion held by the PBOC was unchanged at 72.8 million troy ounces at the end of last month, figures released on Sunday showed.
The central bank opted not to add to reserves in May, ending an 18-month buying spree.
The Reserve Bank of India added more than nine tonnes last month, based on calculations using weekly data, World Gold Council analyst Krishan Gopaul said.
That is the most since July 2022, and means India’s reserves have expanded by 37 tonnes this year to 841 tonnes, he wrote in a social media post.
Spot gold declined as much as 0.5 percent to US$2,380.80 an ounce in Singapore hours, and traded at US$2,382.65 at 2:26pm in Singapore.
It is possible that soaring gold prices have deterred purchases by the PBOC, Saxo Capital Markets Pte strategist Charu Chanana said in Singapore.
Still, there is further upside for gold amid increasing hopes for looser monetary policy this year, as well as ongoing geopolitical risks, she said.
In the coming days, gold traders would assess two days’ of US congressional testimony from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell today and tomorrow for hints about the outlook for US rates into the end of this year, as well as consumer price index data for last month on Thursday.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS