Korea

Spot prices remained steady during Tuesday trades supported by physical buying as investors continued to watch the progress in euro zone's debt problem and tensions in the Korean peninsula for trading cues.

Uncertainties about how the euro zone would stabilise its fiscal conditions continued to bother investors, even after an agreement over the weekend on a $115-billion bailout package for debt laden Ireland.

During Asian deals on Friday the US dollar reached strong gains against major currencies on the worries over the European debt crisis and tensions in the Korean peninsula.

The dollar, the world's reserve currency, rose to more than a 2-month high of 1.3256 against the euro at 2:40 am ET Friday, breaking Wednesday's high of 1.3286. If the dollar gains further, it may likely target the 1.320 level.

The dollar has been in an upward channel against the euro after it fell to more than a 9-month low of 1.4283 on November 05. Thus far, the dollar has gained 7% against the euro.

Gold remained steady during Friday trades just a bit away of $1,400 a ounce supported by concerns over European debt issue and Korean conflict development.

Spot gold drifted 88 cents lower to $1,373.24 an ounce by 0106 GMT, trading below its all-time high around $1,424 struck in early November.

In late Asian trades on Wednesday most major currencies went sideways irrespective of the worries raised by the tension in Korea and lingering doubts about the rescue package to Ireland.

However, the Australian, New Zealand and the Canadian dollars gained earlier and these pairs too traded choppy later.

The U.S. dollar is currently worth 1.3397 against the euro, 0.9955 against the franc, 1.5813 against the pound, 1.0193 against the Canadian dollar, 0.9800 against the Aussie, 0.7636 against the New Zealand dollar and 83.17 against the yen.
 

Gold prices remained steady on Wednesday as markets were waiting for further reports on the conflict in the Korean peninsula amid worries about the euro zone debt crisis.

"It's mainly safe-haven buying in gold after North Korea and South Korea exchanged fire yesterday, in addition to the buy-on-dip type," said Li Ning, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures.

"Gold is likely to revisit its record high at the end of this year or next year, thanks to strong demand, particularly from this region.

This week Apple Inc announced that its latest model of the iPhone will go on sale in additional 17 countries starting Friday, July 30. The iPhone 4 went on sale in France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. in late June.

On a larger scale the latest version of the Jesus Phone will be available in 88 nations by September this year,

At a press conference last week, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs noted that the handset is not rolling out on time in South Korea, home turf for two of Apple top rivals, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc.

From now Samsung enables girls, Barbie admirers, to enjoy working on the computer. The company thus introduced Barbie Special Edition X170 notebook.