Codelco opened an investigation into over-reported 2024 and 2025 copper production, submitting findings to prosecutors, while the LME complex rose broadly on October 6 and Japan's largest nickel smelter forecast another global surplus in 2027.
DRAM spot prices were flat week on week while 512Gb TLC NAND wafer spot fell 2.9%, even as TrendForce forecasts 4Q26 contract prices up 10-15% for DRAM and 15-20% for NAND and Samsung heads into third-quarter results expected to show a memory operating margin above 80%.
Owners committed to a fresh wave of bulker and tanker newbuildings in China this week with disclosed prices between $35.5m and $80m a ship and deliveries stretching into 2030, even as secondhand VLCC values have risen above newbuilding prices for the first time on record.
Crude held close to $101 a barrel as Saudi Arabia pushed record volumes through its East-West pipeline to bypass Hormuz, while Aramco's chief executive warned global inventories were 'scarily thin' and Gulf exports recovered to 81% of pre-war levels.
US distributor urea prices jumped 9.1% to 796.25 dollars a short ton in the week ending 2 October while UAN28 fell 11.1%, even as Washington deferred the federal diesel tax on dyed fuel to ease harvest-time fuel bills that still sit near record levels.
TrendForce's 5 October foundry bulletin reports eight-inch capacity tightness pushing Taiwan foundries to raise prices, with TSMC delaying mature-node retirement and reallocating twelve-inch capacity to CoWoS-related interposers and silicon photonics, while JEDEC published the first industry-wide silicon photonics reliability standard.
Base metals whipsawed in the first week of October: a dollar squeeze pushed aluminium to a twelve-week low on 1 October, then softer US payroll data sent the whole complex higher on 5 October with three-month copper closing at 14,401 dollars a tonne and Escondida strike risk adding a supply premium.
TrendForce forecasts conventional DRAM contract prices rising 10-15% quarter on quarter and NAND Flash 15-20% in the fourth quarter of 2026, with enterprise SSD the only product line where price growth accelerates, while Taiwan's Nanya and Winbond post record revenue on supply that still covers only half of demand.
Tanker newbuilding economics have decoupled from the normal depreciation curve: 198 VLCCs have been ordered so far in 2026 against 89 for all of 2025, pushing the orderbook-to-fleet ratio to 37% and lifting newbuilding VLCC prices 8.4% to 138 million dollars while five-year-old ships now command a record 49% premium over new steel.
OPEC+ left its November production quota unchanged at 31.01 million barrels daily while the G7 prepared to release up to 100 million barrels of crude and diesel, pressing middle-distillate margins down from record highs even as Aramco warned that global inventories remain dangerously thin.
US urea averaged $796.25 a short ton, up $66.25 or 9.1% on the week, while anhydrous ammonia rose 15.9% to $945 and UAN32 gained 15.7%, even as NOLA barge values slipped on news of a fourth Chinese export quota and a 1.7-million-tonne Indian tender due 7 October.
NVIDIA's DGX Spark 128GB jumps from a $3,999 launch price to about $6,950 while a new 64GB model arrives at $4,999 on 23 October, and ServeTheHome reports paying around $2,000 for 64GB ECC RDIMMs as Intel's 144-288 core Xeon 6+ stack reaches broader supply.
A new study counts 343 immersion DUV lithography systems in Chinese fabs after more than $13 billion of 2024-25 buying, while TSMC heads into its 15 October earnings call with advanced-node prices seen up 5-10% and a possible Texas fab partnership with Elon Musk's Terafab.
Three-month LME copper closed at $14,258.50 a tonne, within 4% of the September record, as Comex warehouses hold 69% of exchange-tracked stocks, half of LME inventories are earmarked for delivery and BHP's Escondida contract talks stay unresolved.
TrendForce projects conventional DRAM contract prices rising 10-15% quarter-on-quarter in 4Q26 and NAND Flash 15-20%, with enterprise SSD the only category accelerating at 23-28% as hyperscalers scramble for QLC capacity and Tesla cuts memory from its next AI chips.
Europe's physical benchmark Dated Brent jumped above $120 a barrel even as ICE Brent front-month settled near $102 on Friday, with OPEC+ holding November targets steady, the EU weighing a 50-million-barrel diesel release and China suspending October fuel exports.
Nvidia will launch a 64GB DGX Spark at $4,999 on 23 October while lifting the 128GB model to about $6,950 from its $3,999 launch price, a direct pass-through of sharply higher memory costs.
TrendForce projects fourth-quarter conventional DRAM contract prices up 10-15 percent and NAND up 15-20 percent, with enterprise SSDs the only category accelerating at 23-28 percent on agentic AI and KV cache demand.
Intel, TSMC and Samsung are converging on backside power delivery as AI accelerator packages climb toward 3,500-4,000 watts, while TSMC weighs a multi-fab Texas campus and ASML plans at least 80 EUV tools for 2027.
US nitrogen costs extended their rally with anhydrous ammonia up 15.9 percent on the week and urea 9.1 percent higher, while record September corn stocks and accelerating harvest pushed December corn below $5 a bushel.