The dollar's rally ran out of steam Friday as concerns about a possible heightened terrorism alert eclipsed the impact of stronger than expected US job creation figures.
The dollar dipped to ¥109.29 at 10pm, against ¥110.17 on Thursday.
The euro perked up to trade at US$1.1535, up from US$1.1415 in New York late on Thursday.
"It is a very rumor-driven market at the moment," said Hans Redeker, head of currency strategy at BNP Paribas.
Kathy Lien, chief fundamental analysts with Forex Capital Markets said the rumors proved enough to send the dollar lower, particularly against the euro, with a light US economic data calendar next week.
The speculation about an increased terror risk alert proved only to be market rumor, but concerns about US security are perpetuated by reports of casualties in Iraq.
Redeker noted that the dollar's failure to break past US$1.1370 against the euro and the relatively quiet pre-weekend trade also helped heap pressure on the US currency.
Robert Sinche at Citibank said the dollar's inability to break through the key support levels of before a Group of Seven statement on exchange rates sparked some consolidation, but said he still sees the dollar moving higher, particularly against the euro.
"The rebound in the dollar that we expect will eventually push the euro back below 1.10 during the months ahead gathered momentum this week," he said.
The dollar spiked higher briefly in the wake of a forecast-busting US labor market report that suggested the US economic recovery was well on track.
The US Labor Department reported that the economy had added more than a quarter million non-farm payroll jobs over the past three months.
But the gains proved fleeting.
The dollar shot up to a seven-week high of US$1.1376 against the euro after the news but gains were even then limited by profit-taking, said Gary Noone, analyst at MMS International.
The dollar was being quoted in late US trade at 1.3618 Swiss francs from Sf1.3765 Thursday.
The pound was at US$1.6741 dollars from US$1.6683.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts