The New Taiwan dollar weakened, snapping an 11-day rally, after a Chinese-language business daily reported the central bank may sell the currency to stem its gains.
The NT dollar fell NT$0.087 to close at NT$30.95 against its US counterpart in Taipei, reducing its gain for the week to 0.7 percent.
"The central bank has given a warning to the market," said William Chou, a foreign-exchange analyst at Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行). "With this atmosphere, nobody wants to push the Taiwan dollar higher. It's close to the red line for the central bank."
Banks may have their foreign-exchange licenses suspended or revoked if they help overseas currency traders speculate in the NT dollar, the paper said, without citing anyone. The local currency, which had the highest close on Thursday since July 12, 2000, has increased 2.6 percent against its US counterpart this year, to become the third best performer after the Sri Lankan rupee and South Korean won.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said on Feb. 24 that he won't pursue independence in his last three years in office and will seek direct transport links with China.
"The political situation has improved and the outlook for some stocks is better, so a large inflow of capital may still come into Taiwan," said Tommy Ong, vice president of the treasury and markets at DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd, a unit of Southeast Asia's biggest lender.
"That is supporting the Taiwan dollar," Ong said.
Global investors acquired a net US$691 million worth of Taiwanese equities this week, after buying US$3.7 billion of shares last month, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange figures.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS