Better US economic data failed to help the dollar in late London trading Friday, as analysts increasingly concluded that the market was over-optimistic about the US economy's second-half prospects.
The single European currency rose to US$1.1518 from US$1.1474 late on Thursday in New York.
The dollar fell to Japanese Yen 118.86 against Japanese Yen 119.20 on Thursday.
"I think it's a matter of too much good news being priced in too soon. I think what the market would like to see is a significant outperformance" on the US data releases, said Andre de Klerk, currency strategist at the ECU Group.
US June durable goods orders came in 2.1 percent better than in May, against the consensus forecast of US economists for a 1.3-percent rise.
New and existing home sales data for June were also solid, with new home sales rising to a new record high.
Yet this was not enough to help the dollar, as the euro broke decisively above US$1.15 to its highest levels this week.
"The most important thing right now is that good growth in the second half is very much fully expected by the market now," said David Mann, strategist at Standard Chartered.
In order to truly give the dollar a lift, data will have to really come in on the strong side, and US stocks will have to rally, analysts said.
"Absent a really good rally in US stocks, it's hard to see why the dollar would not keep weakening," Mann said.
The fact that the dollar has declined after the improved US data -- on top of an unexpectedly large drop in weekly jobless claims Thursday -- is "firm confirmation from the market that the good news for the dollar has been priced in and to an extent overestimated," ECU Group's de Klerk said.
De Klerk said the euro could hit US$1.1625 within the next week.
He cautioned, however, that summer is often a difficult period to forecast currencies, given thinner trading conditions. This makes volatile movements a bigger risk.
Meanwhile, the pound was unfazed by a disappointing second-quarter British economic growth report, marking gains against the dollar in tandem with the euro.
British GDP grew 0.3 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, against expectations of 0.4-percent growth.
Nevertheless, Britain is likely to continue outpacing euro-zone economies this year, leaving its interest rates higher and more enticing to global investors, analysts said.
The euro was changing hands at US$1.1518 from US$1.1474 late on Thursday in New York, Japanese Yen 136.73 (Japanese Yen 136.40), UK Pound 0.7103 (UK Pound 0.7096) and 1.5457 Swiss francs (Sf1.5431).
The dollar was being quoted at Japanese Yen 118.86 (Japanese Yen 118.90) and 1.3437 Swiss francs (Sf1.3448).
The pound was at US$1.6199 (US$1.6165), Japanese Yen 192.58 (Japanese Yen 192.20) and 2.1763 Swiss francs (Sf2.1739).
On the London Bullion Market, the price of an ounce of gold stood at US$363.0 compared with US$357.30 on late Thursday afternoon.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day