The euro dropped to a seven-week low versus the US dollar as Greece moved closer to defaulting on its obligations, bolstering concern the region’s sovereign-debt crisis is worsening.
“The European debt markets are particularly unsettled at this point and any unsettling headlines certainly have the potential to hurt the euro,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo & Co in New York. “Policy makers do appear to be fairly resistant to any kind of change in the terms or conditions surrounding Greek debt. It’s negative for the euro.”
Europe’s shared currency fell 1 percent on Friday to US$1.4161 and touched US$1.4048 on Monday, the lowest since March 29. On the week, it gained 0.3 percent, from US$1.4119 on May 13. The euro slid to ¥113.42 on May 16, the lowest level since March 18. It rose 1.4 percent over the week to ¥115.69 in its first weekly advance this month. The US dollar strengthened 1.1 percent to ¥81.70, from ¥80.80 on May 13.
The yen was the worst performer against major currencies this week as Japan slid into its third recession in a decade and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he expects the central bank to maintain a flexible monetary policy.
“The fact that Japan is officially in a recession again is the death knell for the yen,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, Americas G10 -currency-strategy head at Bank of America Corp in New York.
The US dollar fell versus most peers as minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting on April 26 and April 27 showed that while officials began to coalesce on a strategy to reverse record monetary stimulus, no action is imminent.
The British pound weakened for the first time in three weeks against the euro as traders scaled back bets on when the Bank of England will raise interest rates.
The UK currency was little changed against the US dollar. The pound declined 0.5 percent against the euro and 0.5 percent against the US dollar on Wednesday as minutes from the Bank of England’s May 5 meeting showed the majority of policy makers warned against raising borrowing costs. The pound declined 0.3 percent against the euro in the week as of 4:33pm on Friday in London.
ASIAN CURRENCIES
Asian currencies rose this week, led by South Korea’s won, on optimism funds will increase purchases of the region’s assets after economic data showed accelerating growth and the US signaled rates will remain low.
South Korea’s won appreciated 0.4 percent this week to 1,082.80 per US dollar in Seoul, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Singapore’s dollar climbed 0.3 percent to S$1.2358 and Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.1 percent to 8,543.
The Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen, advanced 0.3 percent in the past five days.
The New Taiwan dollar on Friday strengthened by the most in more than a week on optimism economic growth will continue to draw funds from global investors.
Taiwan’s economy expanded 6.55 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with 6.92 percent in the previous three months, the statistics bureau said after the currency market closed on Thursday.
The NT dollar rose 0.3 percent from Thursday to NT$28.780 against its US counterpart as of the 4pm time close, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It was the biggest one-day advance since May 11.
The currency, which was little changed this week, has strengthened 5.5 percent this year, the best performance among the 10 most-traded Asian currencies.
Elsewhere, Thailand’s baht declined 0.3 percent this week to 30.30 per US dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Philippine peso was little changed at 43.22. China’s yuan advanced 0.08 percent to 6.4926, while India’s rupee weakened 0.1 percent to 45.015.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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