Gold price hike

Gold and silver tumbled on Tuesday as investors sold on uncertainty about the direction of monetary policy in the United States, but a softer dollar helped support prices and sentiment. Gold hit a record high of $1,518.10 a troy ounce on Monday. It was last bid at $1,504.36 from $1,508.45 on Monday. Spot silver ceded nearly 5 per cent to $44.61 an ounce after touching $49.31 an ounce on Monday, within reach of $49.48 hit in January 1980. It was bid at $45.77 an ounce at 1143 GMT from $46.90 late in New York on Monday and is heading for its biggest daily loss since March 15. ‘The rally has been strong, it’s not surprising to see profit-taking ahead of the FOMC meeting,’ said Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity Research. ‘Markets expect it will be a dovish statement from the US Fed, but there are worries about them ending (Quantitative Easing) ahead of time.’ Tighter US policy would mean less cash floating around the financial system looking for a home and fewer worries about inflation, which investors protect against by buying gold. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting starts later on Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday. The US central bank is expected to confirm it will stick to plans to complete a $600 billion bond-buying program. The post-meeting news conference by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday will be the first regularly scheduled briefing by a Fed chief in the bank’s 97-year history. ‘The ... meeting is a possible event risk but we believe post-meeting comments will confirm that US short-term rates will remain low for the time being which would be positive for precious metals,’ Credit Suisse Private Banking said in a note.

ADB's food warning to ASIANS

Soaring global food prices threaten to push tens of millions of Asians into extreme poverty and cut the region’s economic growth this year, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report Tuesday. Coupled with skyrocketing oil prices, the spike poses a serious setback for developing Asia after having rebounded rapidly and strongly from the 2008 global economic crisis, said chief ADB economist Rhee Changyong. ‘Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia,’ Rhee said in a statement. Domestic food inflation in developing Asian nations hit 10 per cent at the start of this year, with double-digit rises in the price of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oils, dairy products and meat, the Manila-based institution said. If this rate continues, as is likely, 64 million people in developing Asia could be pushed into extreme poverty and economic growth could be reduced by up to 1.5 percentage points this year, the bank warned. Vietnam has been one of the hardest hit nations in terms of rice inflation, despite being a major exporter, according to the ADB. It has seen domestic rice retail prices shoot up 36.7 per cent since June last year, while Indonesia and Sri Lanka have endured increases of least 21 per cent. China recorded rice price rises of 12.6 per cent, near the average for developing Asia. Wheat price increases were most severe in Kyrgyzstan, with a jump of 67 per cent since June last year, and Bangladesh, 50 per cent, according to the ADB. Wheat prices spiked by about a third in Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Tajikistan. On a positive note, the bank said there was ample room to improve rice and wheat yields, with the world’s top 10 rice producers averaging just 4.074 tonnes per hectare (2.47 acres) compared with top performing Egypt’s 9.883 tonnes.

General Electric has profit

Profits have surged at US conglomerate General Electric (GE), adding to the wave of corporations whose earnings have exceeded expectations. GE said net earnings had risen by 79% to $3.4bn (£2.01bn) for the first three months of 2011 from a year earlier. It also increased its dividend. Revenue rose 6% to $38.45bn, when many analysts had expected a decline for the quarter. Apple, Intel, Nokia and McDonald's have all beat forecasts this week. GE is seen as a bellwether for the US economy, given the breadth of its operations, which include a financial arm as well as industrial units. The profit growth was fuelled by growth in its healthcare and transport divisions, and net profits of $1.8bn at GE Capital. "As today's results show, GE has emerged from the recession a stronger, more competitive company," said GE chief executive Jeff Immelt. The dividend increase - by one cent to 15 cents - is the third in the past 12 months, and is effective from the third quarter of this year.

Nokia has posted profit

Mobile phone maker Nokia has posted better-than-expected profits for the first three months of 2011, down 1% to 344m euros (£304m). But its market share fell 4% to 29% as cheaper rivals and the popularity of competitors' smartphones ate into Nokia's dominance. Nokia also said that it had struck a long-awaited deal to develop smartphone technology with Microsoft. Investors welcomed the news, sending Nokia shares up almost 3%. Stephen Elop, chief executive, said: "In the first quarter, we shifted from defining our strategy to executing our strategy. On this front, I am pleased to report that we signed our definitive agreement with Microsoft and already our product design and engineering work is well underway." The Finnish company's slow response to the smartphone threat from Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry handsets has been one of investors' key concerns. On Wednesday Apple unveiled a 95% rise in first-quarter profits, and said it had sold a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter. Consultants Strategy Analytics said that Apple had now overtaken Nokia as the world's largest handset seller in revenue terms.

BP has to pay $1bn for gulf sea

The US Justice Department, which helped form the agreement, said the funds would go to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It will be used to clean up affected areas, including beaches. Other recipients of the $1bn include the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. Hundreds of miles of coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third of the Gulf's US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions. The Justice Department said the release of the money was the largest restoration agreement of its kind ever reached and was "a first step towards fulfilling BP's obligations to fund the complete restoration of injured public resources". The department said the agreement does not affect the ultimate liability of BP or any other company for environmental damages or other liabilities, but lets restoration projects get started sooner.

China restict out banking in Taiwan

China could allow its banks to widen access to Taiwanese lenders and remove current restrictions on branches opened on the mainland, Beijing’s banking regulation chief told local media on Sunday. Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, extended the olive branch upon his arrival Saturday, according to the Taipei-based Commercial Times. Liu and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Yu-chang will hold talks in Taipei Monday in the first meeting since Taipei and Beijing set up a banking supervisory cooperation platform in January. According to Liu, under the pending new measures, Taiwanese lenders will be allowed to start doing rendering business once they have opened branches on the mainland, the Times said. Existing measures require Taiwan lenders to open branches for a minimum of a year and become profitable before they are permitted to do rendering business.

Toyota company's production reduce highly

The company has been facing shortages in supplies of parts as production has been disrupted because of last month's earthquake and tsunami. While it has restarted production in Japan, its factories have been working at a reduced output. The firm has said output would return to normal only by the end of 2011. The world's biggest car manufacturer also announced more cuts in production at its factories in Asia. The automaker said plants in eight Asian countries, including Thailand and India, will operate at 50% capacity from 25 April to 4 June. It also said that factories in these countries will operate for just three days a week during the period. The company had already announced that its factories in China will operate at 30-50% of capacity until 3 June. Meanwhile, another Japanese automaker, Nissan Motors also announced that output at its Japanese plants had slumped by 52% in March compared with last year.

Chittagong port will introduce CTMS

Chittagong port is Bangladesh's gateway to international trade, will expect to go for automation with the digital container terminal management system. On the occasion of the 124th founding anniversary of the port, Chittagong Port Authority chairman hoped for it. The automation will transform the port into a world class global shipping. It has become a crying need for catering to the global demand and for supporting transit facilities if those are allowed to neighboring countries. It will make the container handling very easy. It need to digitalized the port as early as possible.