The US dollar fell to a three-week low against the yen on speculation the US Federal Reserve will reiterate next week its intention to keep interest rates near zero, damping the appeal of US assets.
The euro surged to a 16-month high versus the US dollar in the holiday-shortened trading week, as signs that the region’s economy is gathering momentum fueled speculation the European Central Bank will raise interest rates further.
“Market perceptions seem to be intensifying that the Fed’s quantitative easing stance will continue,” said Masanobu Ishikawa, general manager of foreign exchange at Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow Ltd, Japan’s largest currency broker. “The bias is likely to sell the dollar.”
The US dollar dropped 1.5 percent to ¥81.88 on Friday from ¥83.13 on Friday last week for a second weekly loss. The euro advanced to US$1.4585, from US$1.4430, and reached US$1.4649, the highest level since December 2009. The Australian dollar rose 1.7 percent to US$1.0741, from US$1.0568, after climbing to US$1.0775, the strongest since it was freely floated in 1983.
Financial markets in countries including the US and UK were closed on Friday for holiday.
The euro rose 1.1 percent this week as reports showed Europe’s services and manufacturing growth unexpectedly accelerated this month, suggesting the region’s economy is weathering surging energy costs and austerity measures.
“The eurozone’s recovery looks solid,” said Hitoshi Asaoka, senior strategist in Tokyo at Mizuho Trust & Banking Co, a unit of Japan’s second-largest bank. “As long as inflation is on the upside, market expectations for European Central Bank rate hikes will likely persist, which is euro-supportive.”
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