The weakened US dollar tumbled further on Friday on foreign exchange markets, sinking to another record low against the euro, as G7 finance chiefs met for talks in Washington.
The G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs did not spell out a specific course of action. Rather, they sought to strike a confident tone that they are on top of the situation. Finance officials also said they will seek to learn the causes and lessons from the turmoil.
At 9pm GMT, the euro was swapping hands at US$1.4301, up from US$1.4297 late on Thursday. The euro had earlier surged to a record US$1.4319.
The dollar meanwhile fell sharply against the Japanese currency, dropping to ?114.53 from ?115.62 a day earlier.
The dollar has been undermined by mounting expectations that the US central bank will be again forced to cut borrowing costs.
The US Federal Reserve slashed its key interest rate last month by half a percentage point to 4.75 percent amid financial market turmoil and a lingering housing market downturn.
Lower borrowing costs in the US reduce interest in the dollar and boost the attractiveness of the euro.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has voiced confidence in a "strong dollar" in the past week, but the currency has declined sharply in the past year, falling by over 13 percent against the euro.
And many analysts expect the dollar's fortunes to dwindle further in coming weeks, but that could trigger thorny problems for policy makers in other countries, particuarly the eurozone where exporters are becoming concerned about the euro's strength.
Concerns are also mounting in the US that the dollar's fall could spark inflation risks for the world's largest economy as it makes foreign goods and products more expensive for Americans to buy.
The greenback's value also dipped against the Canadian dollar, as the Canadian currency climbed as high as US$1.0381, marking its highest level against the US dollar in 33 years, before settling at US$1.0345.
Some analysts said a coordinated action by the G7 was unlikely because the strength of the euro reflected the good health of the eurozone economies.
In late New York trading, the dollar stood at 1.1660 Swiss francs, down from SF1.1693. The pound rose to US$2.0514 from US$2.0444.
‘BULLISH YEAR AHEAD’: The contract chipmaker set a growth target of up to 29 percent, as it expects to outperform its peers in the semiconductor industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to boost this year’s capital expenditure budget by about 46 percent to exceed US$44 billion, citing strong customer demand for advanced technologies used in high-performance computing (HPC) and 5G-related applications, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday. The plan marks a record spending for TSMC after the chipmaker budgeted US$30 billion for capacity expansions at home and overseas fabs last year. TSMC is planning to allocate about 80 percent of this year’s capital spending for advanced chip capacity expansion including 2-nanometer, 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies. The chipmaker reiterated that it is on
EMERGING TECH: The semiconductor equipment industry has had unprecedented growth, with increased spending in six of the past seven years, the CEO of SEMI said Global fab equipment spending at front-end facilities is expected to grow at an annual pace of 10 percent this year to a record of more than US$98 billion, with South Korea taking the lead, followed by Taiwan, SEMI said in a quarterly report yesterday. That means that world fab equipment spending is to grow for a third straight year, following a 39 percent jump last year and 17 percent growth in 2020, the global semiconductor trade association said in a statement. The industry previously had three consecutive years of growth from 2016 to 2018, more than 20 years after logging a three-year
Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) this year expects its number of electric battery swapping stations to outstrip the number of gas stations in the nation following seven years of deployment, a sign that electric two-wheelers are gaining traction. As of the end of last year, Gogoro had built 2,215 GoStations nationwide, mostly in urban areas, up from 1,937 in 2020. The number of gas stations operated by CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) was 2,487. “By the end of this year, we are very confident that the number of battery swapping stations will surpass the number of gas stations
TENSE WAIT: While China is close to approving the deal, Germany might be worried that GlobalWafers is headquartered in Taiwan, the firm’s chairwoman said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) is close to clearing an important regulatory hurdle in its US$5.3 billion acquisition of German silicon wafer manufacturer Siltronic AG, people familiar with the matter said. The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has said that it is largely comfortable with the antitrust remedies proposed by the companies and could make a formal decision shortly, the people said, asking not to be identified as they were discussing confidential information. The deal still requires approval from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and those discussions are ongoing, the people said. GlobalWafers shares were up as
RSS