China's currency closed at its highest against the dollar since the country on July 21 let the yuan appreciate for the first time in a decade.
The yuan closed at 8.1046 per dollar, from 8.1056 on July 29, according to the Web site of the People's Bank of China. The currency was fixed at the same level.
China wants "to allow the appreciation of the currency but in a very gradual manner," Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior investment strategist at CFC Securities Ltd, said in Hong Kong. "It will limit the pace of the gain and reduce volatility."
The central bank allowed the yuan to gain 2.1 percent to 8.11 against the dollar on July 21, ending the peg of 8.3 introduced in 1995. It sets the official fixing price of the yuan, which then becomes the mid-rate for trading on the next working day. The People's Bank of China allows a daily movement of 0.3 percent either side of the rate against the dollar.
The yuan closed at 9.8628 per euro, from 9.8221 on July 29, at 0.072266 against the yen, from 0.072327, and at 1.0422 versus the Hong Kong dollar, from 1.0423. The currency is allowed to fluctuate 1.5 percent either side of those closing rates.
Investors have been betting on further gains in the Chinese currency. The yuan would rise to 7.7625 against the dollar in a year if freely traded, a gain of 4.4 percent from today's closing price, according to forward contracts as of 4:22 p.m. in Hong Kong. The so-called implied rate was at 7.7575 late in Asia on Friday.
Such contracts allow investors to bet on the value of a currency that isn't fully convertible or hedge investments denominated in it.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure