The yen fell by the most since 1995 against its developed-nation counterparts as the Bank of Japan added economic stimulus and signs the eurozone debt crisis was abating damped safety demand.
The 17-nation euro strengthened against the US dollar and the yen during the last quarter after regional leaders agreed on a second bailout for Greece, spurring optimism that the region was recovering from its financial crisis.
“The main driving force behind the yen was the Bank of Japan embarking on a much easier monetary policy,” said Carl Forcheski, a director on the corporate currency sales desk at Societe Generale SA in New York. “The US labor market has performed a bit better than a lot of people were expecting and some of the data we’ve seen lately has given us a little bit of optimism.”
The yen dropped 10.4 percent over the past three months against the currencies of nine developed-nations, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, in the biggest drop since the third quarter of 1995.
The Japanese currency lost 7.8 percent against the US dollar to ￥82.87 and weakened 10.9 percent to ￥110.56 per euro in New York.
Futures traders added to bets last week that the yen would decline against the US dollar, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on a decline in the yen compared with those on a gain — so-called net shorts — was 67,622 on Tuesday, compared with net shorts of 25,821 a week earlier.
Mexico’s peso rose the most against the dollar among the 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, adding 8.1 percent to 12.8107 per US dollar. The currency benefited from a stronger economy in the US, its largest trading partner and from higher oil prices. Crude is Mexico’s largest export.
The pound strengthened 0.8 percent this week to US$1.5991 after rising to US$1.6037, the highest level since Nov. 14 last year. The currency stayed above its 200-day moving average of US$1.5851. The UK currency gained 0.3 percent over the five days to ￡0.83.35 per euro.
Sterling has risen 1.4 percent over the past month, the best performer of the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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