The US dollar slumped against other world currencies on Friday after a US government report revealed surprise job losses last month, suggesting a growth slowdown in the world's largest economy.
The euro and other currencies spiked higher against the dollar after the Labor Department released a monthly report showing US employers unexpectedly shed 4,000 jobs last month, marking the first drop in payrolls since August 2003.
The euro was changing hands at US$1.3769 at 9pm GMT, up sharply from US$1.3690 in New York late on Thursday. The European currency had earlier surged as high as US$1.3798 to its highest level since Aug. 9 as traders bought euros and dumped dollars.
The US dollar also tumbled against the Japanese yen, falling to ¥113.47, compared with ¥115.33 late on Thursday.
The US central bank has kept its key short term federal funds interest rate pegged at 5.25 percent since June last year, saying inflation remains its biggest concern.
But with evidence that the housing downturn is spilling over into the wider economy, market watchers say the Fed will have to trim rates to stimulate economic growth.
The euro was buoyed this week after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided on Thursday to keep eurozone borrowing costs unchanged amid financial market turmoil.
The ECB held its main lending rate steady at 4 percent, but indicated that it could raise borrowing costs in the future.
The Bank of England also held borrowing costs steady at 5.75 percent on Thursday, saying it was "too soon" to judge the full economic disruption caused by mounting US home foreclosures.
In late New York trading, the US dollar stood at 1.1881 Swiss francs, down from SF1.2015 late on Thursday. The pound was being traded at US$2.0287, up from US$2.0237 a day earlier.
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
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