Latest News
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SPIE Secures Cabling Job at Taiwanese Offshore Wind Farm
SPIE Global Services Energy, through its SPIE Wind Connect, has secured termination and testing job of the inter-array cables for the Taiwan Power Company (TPC) offshore wind farm phase II.SPIE Wind Connect signed the contract with Shinfox Far East Energy (SFE) for the 300 MW TPC phase II, located approximately 20 kilometers offshore from Changhua County in Taiwan.The inter-array cables connect 31 Vestas V174-9.5MW offshore wind turbines to the offshore substation. Execution of works began in August 2025, with completion scheduled in 2026.Building on the success of TPC Phase I, which added 109.2MW of renewable energy capacity in November 2021, TPC Phase II is set to significantly expand Taiwan’s offshore wind portfolio.Once operational, it is expected to generate 1,000 GWh of electricity annually, meeting the power needs of approximately 270,000 households and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 403,000 metric tonnes each year.“This project marks another significant milestone in SPIE Wind Connect growing presence in Asia’s offshore wind sector.“As Taiwan establishes itself as a regional leader in offshore wind, with a robust project pipeline through 2035 and world-class wind resources, we are honored to be entrusted by Shinfox Far East Energy to contribute to the country’s energy transition,” said Sam Dowey, Managing Director at SPIE Wind Connect.
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New tax law aims to give Philippines a fairer share of mining profits
On Thursday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law a measure that overhauls the country's tax system for mining. The aim is to provide a greater share of revenue to the government as well as more transparency in the sector. The new law replaces the fragmented system that differed depending on what type of mining agreement was signed. Marcos stated during the signing ceremony that "we are putting in place a more fair, clearer system that responds to both the needs of our people and environment." The previous system required only mines located within mineral reserves to pay royalties. However, the fiscal obligations were different depending on the type mining agreement. The new law simplifies and increases taxation on all large-scale metal mining operations. It is expected to generate additional revenue of approximately 6.26 billion pesos (110.56 millions) per year. The margin-based royalties will range from 1% up to 5% depending on profitability. When income margins are greater than 30%, there will be a tax rate of between 1% and 10%. This is to capture excess profits in commodity booms. The law introduces a rule of ring-fencing, which means that each mining project is taxed separately. This prevents companies from balancing losses from one project with profits from another. "The days of a mining contractor burying its profits under the weights of losses are over." Marcos stated that we can no longer use the failure of one project to hide the success of another. "Transparency has become the norm." The Philippines has untapped copper, gold and nickel reserves worth an estimated $1 trillion. Government data revealed that mining concessions cover less than 3% (or 22.22 million acres) of the 9 million hectares (9 million acres), which have been identified as areas with high mineral potential. According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, in 2023, the exports of mineral products and non-metallic minerals will total $7.32 billion. This is a slight decrease from $7.53 million in 2022. ($1 = 56.6220 Philippine Pesos)
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Asia markets rise as Fed comments and jobs data indicate rate cuts
Asian stocks rose in the early hours of trading on Thursday, as Federal Reserve officials' dovish remarks soothed investor nerves during a period when global growth concerns and bond market sell-offs were at an all-time high. The Nikkei rose by 1.2%, and Australian shares gained 0.8% after their largest one-day drop since April. MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan, which includes Japan and Australia, lost early gains before falling 0.2% in the last few days. Losses in China were a major factor. Bloomberg News reported that financial regulators were preparing cooling measures to cool the market. The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.6%, and was headed for a third consecutive day of declines. The financial markets started September with a gloomy mood. A sell-off of longer-dated debts has dampened investor confidence in advance of Friday's crucial non-farm payrolls in the United States. A 30-year auction of Japanese government bonds will be held later today to test the appetite of global debt markets for super-long fixed income. The bond market sold-off overnight, but the concern about the fiscal health in major economies, from Japan to Britain and United States, kept borrowing costs for long-term loans near their multi-year-highs. Investors received a boost in confidence after Federal Reserve officials including Governor Christopher Waller expressed their support for rate reductions in the months to come. Stephen Miran said that he would also work to maintain the independence of the Federal Reserve Board. He was selected by President Donald Trump to fill a vacant seat. U.S. Stock Futures rose 0.1%, as investors reacted positively to the Fed's dovish remarks and bought beaten-down stocks. Tony Sycamore is a market analyst with IG, Sydney. He said: "We had one or two weak days but dip-buyers stepped in." Many people see this September weakness as a good opportunity to buy, with the economy still growing strongly. "This is an excellent backdrop for equity markets." The latest "JOLTS", or Job Openings Report, released on Wednesday showed that job openings were lower than expected. This boosted market bets for a rate reduction at the Fed meeting scheduled later in the month. The Federal Reserve "Beige Book", which was released in September, painted a mixed image of the U.S. economy. This appeared to confirm the concerns of monetary policymakers. Analysts from ING described the report's tone as "bleak," and said that it "was littered with tariff warnings about prices." According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, traders are pricing in a 96% probability that the Fed will cut interest rates during its September meeting. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4,2226% from its U.S. closing of 4.211% Wednesday. The two-year rate, which increases with traders' expectation of higher Fed Funds rates, reached 3.6187%, compared to a U.S. closing of 3.612%. The dollar was unchanged against the yen, at 148.13. It remained within the trading range that it has been in since August began. The euro currency fell 0.1% to $1.1652, whereas the dollar index (which tracks the greenback's value against other major trading partners) rose 0.1% to 98.217. Brent crude fell 0.5% on the commodities market to $67.29 per barrel. Gold spot prices fell 0.8% to $3529.94 an ounce, after reaching a record high on Wednesday.
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The price of iron ore is rising on the hope that China will demand more.
Iron ore futures prices rose for the third consecutive session on Thursday. This was aided by expectations of improved demand in China, but rising steel inventories fueled concerns about the pace of resumption of steel production, limiting gains. By 0315 GMT, the most-traded iron ore contract for January on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.39%, to 781.5 Yuan ($109.26), per metric ton. The benchmark iron ore for October on the Singapore Exchange rose 0.69% to $103.95 per ton, the highest since August 29. Yingguang Wang said that some steelmakers were planning to resume production and increase raw material procurement on Thursday, according to a note written by an analyst from Lange Steel the day before. Steel mills at the top Chinese steelmaking center Tangshan had to reduce production temporarily to improve air quality in preparation for a military display in Beijing to mark the end of World War Two on September 3. This temporarily weakened ore demand. Bright Futures reported that inventories of construction steel continue to increase, which puts pressure on the prices. Steel stocks are likely to rise and the demand for steel may be low. This could prevent mills from quickly restarting production. Analysts at Yongan Futures stated that portside stocks would be expected to keep price increases in check. Coke and coking coal, which are used to make steel, have fallen by 3.09% and 2.46 %, respectively. The benchmarks for steel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange are stagnant. Rebar fell 0.35%; hot-rolled coil slipped 0.06%; stainless steel dipped 0.39%, while wire rod rose 0.43%. ($1 = 7.1529 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting and editing by Amy Lv, Lewis Jackson)
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Gold's record high is lowered due to profit-taking and the focus on US job data
Profit-taking led to gold's decline on Thursday, after the bullion reached an all-time high on expectations of a U.S. rate cut. Investors were also looking forward to this week's U.S. employment data. As of 0153 GMT, spot gold was down 0.3%, at $3,546.73 an ounce. On Wednesday, gold reached a new record of $3.578.50 per ounce. U.S. Gold Futures for December Delivery fell 0.8% to $3.605.60. Gold is still on a bullish market, despite some profit-taking. "Rate-cut expectations and concerns over the Federal Reserve’s independence will add to safe haven demand," GoldSilver Central's MD Brian Lan stated. "We will not be surprised if the gold price goes up to $3.800 or higher in near-term." The U.S. Labor Department announced on Wednesday that the number of job openings in July was lower than expected, at 7.181 millions. Fed officials have said that labor market concerns are still driving them to believe in rate cuts. Fed Governor Christopher Waller believes the Fed should cut rates at its next meeting. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, traders are now pricing in 97% of a rate cut of 25 basis points at the end the two-day meeting of the U.S. Central Bank on September 17. This is up from 92% prior to the data. Gold that does not yield is usually a good investment in an environment with low interest rates. Now, the focus is on Friday's non-farm payroll data in the United States. According to a poll, the non-farm payrolls in August are expected to grow by 78,000 jobs compared to 73,000 in July. On Wednesday, Donald Trump stated that if the Supreme Court rules against the U.S. in a case regarding tariffs, the U.S. may have to "unwind' trade agreements it has made with the European Union (EU), Japan and South Korea. Silver fell 0.8%, to $40.87 an ounce. It had reached its highest level since September 2011, in the previous session. Platinum fell 0.5% to $1415.03 while palladium dropped 1% to 1136.26.
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Profit-taking and technical correction bring LIVESTOCK-Cattle Futures to a lower end.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange beef futures fell for a second session in a row on Wednesday, as profit-taking and technical selling corrections from recent highs occurred. Since months, beef futures have been supported by elevated prices. Traders are now assessing whether the high prices will begin to affect beef demand as the outdoor grilling season ends. Analysts said that losses were however limited, as the cash cattle price remained higher than futures. It's a bull market driven by cash. Don Roose said that at this time of the year, October, cattle prices should be equal to cash. CME October Live Cattle Futures finished 1.200 cents below at 238,325 cents a pound. This is a larger discount than the $242 per 100weight that packers were willing to pay for cattle on feedlot markets in the previous week. Cash cattle prices may be stable or even higher than last week, according to the bids of packers at midweek. Beef packer profits remained positive despite tight supplies of cattle and high cattle prices, as beef values hovered at multi-year heights. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the value of the boxed choice beef cutout rose $2.59 per cwt on Wednesday, reversing the previous-day decline. This is the highest price since May 2020. Select cutout increased by $1.56 per cwt to $387.73. According to HedgersEdge, a livestock marketing advisory service, the average beef packer's margin fell to $86.20 a head on Wednesday, from $99.25 per head a day before but was up from $82.55 compared to last week. Live cattle prices also fell, and the October contract ended the day at 361,500 cents per kilogram. CME lean-hog futures fell on Wednesday, after seven consecutive sessions of price gains. Prices had reached their highest level in ten weeks. Analysts said that the market was impacted by the spillover pressure of lower cattle futures, and the expectation for seasonal increases in hog supply into the fourth quarter. CME October lean pork ended at 93.8225 cents per pound, a decrease of 1.725 cents.
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Asia markets stabilize as Fed comments and jobs data point towards cuts
Asian stocks rose in the early hours of trading on Thursday, as Federal Reserve officials' dovish remarks soothed investor nerves during a period when global growth concerns and bond market selloffs were at an all-time high. After a mildly positive session for U.S. stock markets, MSCI's broadest Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan rose 0.5%. The Nikkei opened 1.2% higher, after recovering from its biggest one-day drop since April. Australian shares rose 0.7%. Chinese stocks opened lower, bucking the regional trend. Shanghai Composite dropped 0.4%, and was on course for a third consecutive day of declines following a Bloomberg News report that financial regulators were preparing cooling measures to the market. The financial markets started September with a gloomy mood. A sell-off of longer-dated debts has dampened investor confidence in advance of Friday's crucial non-farm payrolls in the United States. A 30-year auction of Japanese government bonds will be held later today to test the appetite for super-long fixed interest rates on global debt markets. The bond market sold-off overnight, but the concern about the fiscal health in major economies, from Japan to Britain and United States, kept borrowing costs for long-term loans near their multi-year-highs. Investors received a boost in confidence after Federal Reserve officials including Governor Christopher Waller expressed their support for rate reductions in the months to come. Stephen Miran said that he would also work to maintain the independence of the Federal Reserve Board. He was selected by President Donald Trump to fill a vacant seat. U.S. Stock Futures rose 0.1%, as investors reacted positively to the Fed's dovish remarks and bought beaten-down stocks. Tony Sycamore is a market analyst with IG, Sydney. He said: "We had one or two weak days but dip-buyers stepped in." Many people see this September weakness as a good opportunity to buy, with the economy still growing strongly. "This is an excellent backdrop for equity markets." The latest "JOLTS", or Job Openings Report, released on Wednesday showed that job openings were lower than expected. This boosted market bets for a rate reduction at the Fed meeting scheduled later in the month. The Federal Reserve "Beige Book", which was released in September, painted a mixed image of the U.S. economy. This appeared to confirm the concerns of monetary policymakers. Analysts from ING described the report's tone as "bleak," and said that it "was littered with tariff warnings about prices." According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, traders are pricing in a 96% probability that the Fed will cut interest rates during its September meeting. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4,2129% from its U.S. closing of 4.211% Wednesday. The two-year rate, which increases with traders' expectation of higher Fed Funds rates, reached 3.6166%, compared to a U.S. closing of 3.612%. The dollar fell 0.1% to 147.98 yen, staying within the range of trading it has been in since August began. The euro was unchanged at $1.1657 while the dollar index - which measures the greenback's value against the currencies of major trading partners - was unchanged at 98.153. Brent crude fell 0.5% on the commodities market to $67.29 per barrel. Gold spot prices fell 0.2% to $3552.49 an ounce, after reaching a record high on Wednesday.
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Oil prices continue to fall as OPEC+ considers a new output increase
Oil prices fell on Thursday, extending a drop of more than 2% from the previous trading session. Investors and traders are looking ahead to a meeting at the weekend of OPEC+, where producers will likely consider another increase of output targets. Brent crude dropped 27 cents or 0.40% to $67.33 a bar by 0114 GMT. U.S. West Texas intermediate crude fell 28 cents or 0.44% to $63.69 a bar. Two sources with knowledge of the discussions said that eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) will discuss further increases in production at a Sunday meeting. The group is seeking to regain its market share. Phil Flynn is a senior analyst at Price Futures Group. He said that the prospect of OPEC+ increasing output had increased before the meeting. The traders had not expected any change from the group. OPEC+ agreed to increase output targets from April to September by approximately 2.2 million barrels a day, plus a 300,000. bpd quota for the United Arab Emirates. Middle Eastern oil has remained the most expensive region in the world despite production increases. According to a Haitong Securities report, this has boosted the confidence of Saudi Arabian and other OPEC member countries to increase output. The market is now awaiting government data about U.S. crude stocks, which are due on Thursday. This will be a day later than usual due to the U.S. federal holiday on Monday. U.S. crude stockpiles increased by 622,000 barges in the week ending August 29, according to market sources citing API figures released on Wednesday. The API estimate of a U.S. increase in crude stock went against the estimates of analysts polled who, on average estimated that U.S. crude inventory fell by 2,000,000 barrels. (Reporting from Sam Li in Beijing, Trixie Yap and Nicole Jao in New York. Editing by Tom Hogue.)
Investors see the beginning of a tectonic move away from US markets
The global money flows are being upended by a historic trade war, the proposed European fiscal bazooka of $1.2 trillion and China's rise as the leader in the tech race. This could be a turning point, with investor capital moving away from the United States.
China released more stimulus on Tuesday and pledged to make greater efforts in order to mitigate the impact of a escalating U.S. Trade War. The likely next German government had agreed to the largest overhaul of fiscal policy since the reunification.
The U.S. trade war, which began this week, is hurting the mood both inside and outside of the world's largest economy.
Investors have bet heavily on the "U.S. exceptionalism" for the past three years. The country has been ahead of other countries in terms of economic growth, stock market prices, artificial intelligent and many other areas.
Tim Graf, State Street Global Markets' head of macro strategy in EMEA, said: "The U.S. has changed, and the world is now saying that we must adapt, as the U.S. no longer is a reliable trade partner. We have to look after our own defence needs."
A rare divergence on global stock markets has been fueled by the change in sentiment.
The S&P 500 index has fallen 1.8% in the past year. However, European shares have risen almost 9% to a new record high. Tech stocks in Hong Kong are up nearly 30%.
The euro has soared above $1.07 for the first time in four months, and many banks have backed away from their calls to drop it to parity with the dollar.
According to weekly data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, investors have cut their bullish dollar bets in half since the inauguration of U.S. president Donald Trump in January.
Dario Perkins is the managing director of global macro for TS Lombard.
The aggressiveness and threat of tariffs by Trump has forced other countries to spend even more.
In his first 44 working days, Trump has completely rewritten the playbook of foreign relations that had been in place since 1945. He's also launched a trade war with his largest trading partners, and forced European leaders into a radical rethinking of how they fund security.
The U.S. economic growth is slowing down due to tariffs and trade uncertainties. Companies that are more susceptible to a slower rate of growth are beginning to show cracks.
In the past month, an index of U.S. bank stocks has dropped 8% while its European counterpart has increased 15%.
Investors are diversifying away from the U.S. markets by pouring money into Europe.
Spending Big
The dollar looks less attractive as Europe and China are poised to spend large amounts.
"We were long the dollar against euro, and we closed this position more than a week ago. Mark Dowding is chief investment officer of RBC's BlueBay Fixed Income team. The behaviour of Trump has reduced the appeal for U.S. investments in general.
The government has taken several steps to encourage spending at home after investors sold Chinese assets in the past year. As the economy slowed, and wealthy consumers closed their wallets, it took several measures to encourage domestic consumption. Many still saw China as an uninvestable country in the absence a jumbo-stimulus plan, as tensions from a real estate bubble burst that affected both companies and homeowners remained.
Lipper data shows that the almost uninterrupted outflows of China-focused funds following Trump's victory in November have reversed to some $3 billion in early February.
Megacap tech stocks are a major draw for the U.S. Stock Market. Nvidia has been a leader in the AI investment revolution, and is one of the most valuable companies on the planet.
It was not until late January that a low-cost Chinese AI model, previously unknown, made a serious impact on the AI arms race.
DeepSeek's appearance has not only challenged assumptions about AI costs and efficiency, but also revealed how far behind Western companies China was.
Hong Kong tech stocks are up 24% since January 27. A basket of U.S. megacap tech stocks is down 12%.
Yang Tingwu is vice general manager at asset manager Tongheng Investment. He said that China's stock markets are already immune to increased U.S. Tariffs, as the growing strength of China is supporting domestic assets.
Yang stated that "China's technological clout has expanded if you look at TikTok or Xiaohongshu, as well as DeepSeek."
In response to the imminent sale of a rival social media platform, American users are rapidly migrating to Xiaohongshu. This Chinese platform is known in English as RedNote.
TikTok's U.S. operations.
For some, the dollar's appeal will last over time due to a resilient U.S. economic climate and higher interest rates.
Nate Thooft is the CIO of Multi-Asset Solutions & Global Equities for Manulife Investment Management. He said: "I think there's a change in play. We view it as a tactic versus a major secular shift." Recently, he upgraded his maximum underweight position on European stocks to neutral.
(source: Reuters)