The US dollar got a modest lift on Friday from news that the US current account gap, the broadest measure of trade and investment flows, narrowed unexpectedly in the first three months of this year.
The euro dipped to US$1.2622 in late European trading from US$1.2631 late on Thursday in New York.
The US dollar rose to ¥115.13 from ¥114.82 on Thursday.
The US Commerce Department said that the current account deficit narrowed to US$208.7 billion from a record high of US$223.1 billion in the final quarter of last year.
But while the deficit contracted more than most investors had expected, Jay Bryson at the Wachovia bank still believed it had become harder to finance the gap as returns on dollar assets narrowed.
"Looking forward, we expect that the dynamics of the balance of payments will continue to exert downward pressure on the greenback," he said.
The current account deficit may not get much bigger, but it would probably not decline significantly soon.
Additionally, the gap between interest rates in US and the rest of the world is likely to get smaller over the coming months as the Fed nears the end of its cycle of rate increases while other central banks are expected to continue raising rates.
This would reduce the relative attractiveness of US assets, and weigh on demand for the dollar.
In Europe meanwhile, an unexpected decline in eurozone industrial output in April weighed on the euro.
Industrial production fell by 0.6 percent in April from March, Eurostat, the EU statistics office, said. Output rose 1.9 percent on a 12-month basis.
The figures confounded market expectations for a month-on-month rise of 0.5 percent and a year-on-year increase of 3.2 percent.
The euro was changing hands at US$1.2622 against US$1.2631 on Thursday, ¥145.35 (145.05), ¥0.6829 (0.6831) and 1.5564 Swiss francs (1.5553).
The US dollar stood at ¥115.13 (114.82) and 1.2330 Swiss francs (1.2311).
The pound was being traded at US$1.8484 (1.8484).
On the London Bullion Market, the price of an ounce of gold rose to US$574 per ounce, from US$569.50 late on Thursday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”