The euro rose for the first time in three weeks against the US dollar and touched a two-week high after European leaders agreed to a new bailout for Greece and expanded the role of the region’s rescue fund.
The Swiss franc dropped this week against all of its 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg on reduced safety demand, as leaders agreed to guarantee Greek bonds in money market operations if a bailout agreement triggers a default. The US dollar pared its third weekly drop versus the yen before US House Speaker John Boehner withdrew late on Friday from negotiations with the White House on a broad deficit-reduction package.
“The net-positive performance on the euro is clearly linked to the outcome of the summit and the fact that we’ve seen a reversal in euro peripheral credit markets,” said Ray Attrill, a senior currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. “Everybody’s expectations in terms of the outcome of the summit were exceeded and it’s put the onus squarely back on US policymakers.”
The euro advanced 1.4 percent this week to US$1.4360, from US$1.4157 on July 15. The shared currency reached US$1.4439 on Friday, the highest level since July 6. The euro gained 0.7 percent to ¥112.77, from ¥112.02. The greenback depreciated 0.8 percent to ¥78.54, from ¥79.13.
Canada’s dollar pared its weekly gain versus the greenback after a government report showed yesterday that the inflation rate slowed last month more than economists forecast.
The loonie rallied to a three-year high on Thursday, two days after the Bank of Canada said borrowing costs would rise, omitting the word “eventually,” which had appeared in previous statements. The bank also raised its forecast for inflation.
The Canadian dollar gained 0.6 percent to US$0.948 versus the greenback after touching US$0.9423 on Thursday, the strongest level since November 2007.
The Swiss franc, regarded as a haven in times of financial turmoil, declined 1.9 percent to SF1.1762 against the euro after rallying on Monday to SF1.1374, the strongest level since the European’s currency’s 1999 debut.
IntercontinentalExchange Inc’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major US trading partners including the euro, yen and pound, dropped 1.2 percent to 74.245 after falling on Thursday to 73.889, the lowest level since June 9.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by