The US dollar rose for a third day against major currencies on Friday, reaching a new high for the year against the euro, lifted by another positive report about the US economy.
The dollar's rise drove the euro down to US$1.2620 from US$1.2694 late Thursday in New York. That's the lowest the euro has been against the dollar since mid-October.
Traders bid up the dollar after the US Commerce Department said US business inventories rose 0.4 percent in March as total sales accelerated sharply after a lull in February.
The dollar has rallied over the last three days on a string of better-than-expected US economic reports, easing concerns about a slowdown in the world's largest economy.
Thursday's report showing US retail sales rose 1.4 percent in April, the biggest rise in six months, followed Wednesday's release of a smaller-than-expected US trade deficit.
The dollar rose to ?107.37 from ?106.78. Better-than-expected Japanese machinery orders failed to stem the dollar's gains. The British pound fell to US$1.8501 from US$1.8650 on Thursday.
Although there is growing optimism that the weeks' economic reports could spell the end of a soft patch in the US economy, a lack of enthusiasm for US stocks and treasuries could undermine the dollar in coming days, traders say.
"The key question for markets is whether this is a signal of a potentially bigger move in the dollar or just a minor correction," said Steven Englander, chief currency strategist at Barclays Capital in New York, told Dow Jones Newswires.
Also on Friday, for the second time in a week, China denied a report that it plans to change the value of its politically sensitive currency, the yuan.
In comments apparently aimed at discouraging more speculative pressure on the yuan, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (
The yuan has been set at about 8.28 per US dollar since 1994. The United States and other trading partners complain that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage over their competitors. Most traders say if China adopts a more flexible currency system, the yuan would appreciate against the dollar -- and probably also lift the yen against the dollar due to the close trade and regional ties between Japan and China.
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