The US dollar took it on the chin Friday after a much-awaited report showed weaker-than-expected job creation in the US, suggesting the cooling of the world's largest economy has begun.
The euro rose to US$1.2919 at 9pm from US$1.2802 late on Thursday in New York.
The dollar fell to ¥111.67 from ¥112.57 on Thursday.
Data from the US Labor Department showed US employers created a modest 75,000 new jobs last month, well below expectations of 170,000 new jobs.
"The lackluster 75,000 increase in non-farm payrolls in May means that the debate over whether the Fed raises interest rates again is not over yet," said an analyst at Capital Economics, Paul Ashworth.
The weak data suggested the US economy was "fast losing the strong momentum it evidently had in the first quarter," he said, which might cause the Federal Reserve to put off raising interest rates again at its next meeting.
The dollar has recovered some ground this week after minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting last month, released on Wednesday, raised expectations of a further interest rate hike after 16 consecutive rises since June 2004.
The minutes of the May 10 FOMC meeting showed that members were concerned about inflation risks when they voted to raise the federal funds rate another quarter-point, to 5 percent.
Traders were also looking ahead to a meeting of the European Central Bank next Thursday and US trade data due to be released on Friday.
In late New York trading, the US dollar stood at 1.2077 Swiss francs, from SF1.2216 on Thursday. The pound was being traded at US$1.8824, from US$1.8645 on Thursday.
The US dollar lost ground against the New Taiwan dollar in Taipei on Friday, decreasing NT$0.030 to close at NT$32.080.
A total of US$691 million changed hands.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained