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Commodities: An end to the bubble?

The death of Osama bin Laden could be the “trigger that pops the commodity bubble,” said Peter Cohan in InvestorPlace.com. News of his demise gave the U.S. dollar a temporary boost and drove investors to sell off oil, gold, and silver when the market opened this week. The sell-off didn’t last, but it was a sign that commodities prices, now “far above their historical averages,” may not hold. If bin Laden’s death spurs the U.S. to exit Afghanistan, the resulting “peace dividend” would “boost confidence in the dollar and send commodities prices plunging.”

Certain commodities prices are already doing just that, said Liam Pleven in The Wall Street Journal. Prices for cotton, sugar, copper, lead, and zinc have tumbled in recent weeks, following months of seemingly unstoppable growth. Sugar has fallen 34 percent from a “multi­decade” February high, while cotton is down 17 percent from March. Oil and gold remain at or near record highs, but the market is coming to realize that prices have become “unmoored from fundamental forces of supply and demand,” and that a correction is in order. The commodities rally may be a “passing phenomenon” after all.

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Cars: Chrysler turns first net profit since 2006

Chrysler is back in the black, said Deepa Seetharaman in Reuters. The automaker this week posted its first quarterly net profit since 2006, thanks to a “revamped lineup of cars and trucks as well as higher vehicle prices.” Chrysler’s net income for the first three months of 2011 amounted to $116 million, up from a net loss of $197 million in the first quarter of 2010. Revenue, meanwhile, “shot up 35 percent to $13.1 billion.” If Chrysler stays in the black, it will consider an initial public offering either late this year or early in 2012.

Television: Dish Network settles with TiVo

Satellite TV provider Dish Network ended a “seven-year legal dispute over video-recording technology” with TiVo this week, said Tim Catts in Bloomberg.com. Dish and its partner EchoStar agreed to pay DVR pioneer TiVo $500 million to dismiss all lawsuits relating to a patent infringement dating back to 2004. Analysts said the settlement figure was “considerably lower than expected,” and Dish saw its largest single-day gain in stock price in more than two years. TiVo still has patent suits pending against AT&T and Verizon.

Gaming: Sony says sorry for security breach

Sony apologized to the more than 100 million PlayStation users whose data was compromised by a hacker intrusion last week, said Andy Greenberg in Forbes.com. Hackers gained access to as many as 10 million credit cards, plus users’ passwords and contact details. At a press conference in Tokyo, Sony’s senior executives offered a formal apology “complete with a 90-degree bow.” They pledged to beef up security and announced the company would give away “30 days of free downloads and access to premium games and music” to prove they were sorry.

Audio: Bose founder leaves majority stake to MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has “gone into the consumer electronics business,” said Hiawatha Bray in The Boston Globe, having become the new majority owner of audio-equipment-maker Bose. Amar G. Bose, the founder of the privately held company, donated the majority of the firm’s stock to his alma mater last week. The shares don’t come with voting rights, so “MIT won’t have any say in how the company is run,” but the school will profit from cash dividends. Bose reported revenues of $2 billion in 2010.