The US dollar rose the most since August against the currencies of major trading partners as reports showed services industries expanded last month at the fastest pace in four years and employers added jobs for a third month.
Mexico’s peso and Canada’s dollar were the top performers this week against the yen as investors became more confident in the North American recovery before a report next week on US retail sales. The euro fell to a three-month low against the US dollar as the Swiss National Bank said it won’t accept bonds from Ireland’s government and some Irish banks as collateral.
“The US economy is on much sounder footing going forward, which means the dollar is a more attractive currency, especially versus Europe,” said Richard Franulovich, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in New York. “For a lot of people, you’ve reached an important milestone where finally the dollar can benefit from good data.”
IntercontinentalExchange Inc’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major US trading partners including the euro and yen, increased 2.7 percent to 81.129 on Friday, from 79.028 on Dec. 31.
The index’s weekly rally is the biggest since an advance of 3.2 percent during the five days ended Aug. 13. That week the Federal Reserve said the economic recovery will be “more modest,” spurring demand for the dollar’s safety.
The euro fell 3.6 percent to US$1.2907, from US$1.3384 last week, in its biggest weekly drop since August. It touched US$1.2905, the lowest level since Sept. 14. The US dollar gained 2.5 percent to ¥83.15 in the biggest increase since it rose 4.7 percent during the week ended Dec. 4, 2009.
The pound posted its biggest gain versus the euro since January 2009 as investors speculated the UK economy will recover faster than the nations that use the common currency.
Sterling appreciated to its strongest level versus the euro in almost four months and declined against the US dollar.
The pound strengthened 3 percent to £0.8319 pence per euro, as of 6:07pm in London on Friday, its strongest level since Sept. 13, and the biggest one-week advance since the week ending Jan. 30, 2009. Against the US dollar, the British currency was at US$1.5540 from US$1.5612 a week ago.
Sterling strengthened 1.8 percent in the week, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes, which track a basket of 10 developed-country currencies.
Asian currencies had their biggest weekly loss in more than a month, led by the Indian rupee and the Thai baht, as further signs the US economic recovery is on track bolstered demand for the greenback.
China’s yuan had its steepest five-day decline since December 2008 as data on US service industries beat economist’s forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. South Korea’s won and Malaysia’s ringgit weakened on speculation that regional policy makers will take measures to curb gains in their currencies to protect exporters. Lingering concern over Europe’s debt crisis also pushed Asian currencies lower, according to Credit Agricole CIB.
The New Taiwan dollar on Friday closed below NT$30 for the first time since October 1997, suggesting the central bank may tolerate faster appreciation. The NT dollar was 1 percent stronger on Friday and advanced 1.9 percent for the week to NT$29.80 against its US counterpart.
The rupee slumped 1.5 percent from a week ago to 45.39 and the baht fell 1.4 percent to 30.41, its biggest five-day decline since February 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yuan retreated 0.59 percent to 6.6291.
Elsewhere, the Singapore dollar weakened 1.2 percent this week to S$1.2979 and the Philippine peso slid 0.8 percent to 44.155. The Indonesian rupiah declined 0.6 percent to 9,028.
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