The euro rose for the first time in seven weeks versus the yen on speculation Spain may receive aid to ensure access to capital markets and amid indications the shared currency’s decline was too rapid.
The euro rallied against the dollar as European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said policymakers were “ready to act” after leaving their benchmark rate at a record low. The greenback declined after China cut its key interest rates for the first time since 2008, damping appetite for refuge assets.
“The euro can’t fall forever,” said Blake Jespersen, director of foreign exchange in Toronto at Bank of Montreal. “There was bound to be some profit-taking at some point, or some hope that Europe would finally embrace the euro bond, or more importantly, the bank recapitalization from Spain.”
The euro rose 2.5 percent to ¥99.47, its first weekly increase since April 20. The shared currency gained 0.7 percent to US$1.2517 for its first rise against the greenback in six weeks. The yen lost 1.9 percent to ¥79.49 per US dollar.
The US dollar pared losses on Thursday as US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke refrained from signaling additional steps the central bank might take to spur growth, during congressional testimony.
“The situation in Europe poses significant risks to the US financial system and economy and must be monitored closely,” Bernanke said in testimony to the US Congress Joint Economic Committee in Washington. “As always, the Federal Reserve remains prepared to take action as needed to protect the US financial system and economy in the event that financial stresses escalate.”
The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six major US trading partners, fell 0.5 percent to 82.439. It touched 81.911 on June 7, the lowest level since May 28.
The shared currency touched to a two-week high versus the US dollar on Thursday as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the nation is ready to back eurozone financial instruments. Merkel did not specify which financial instruments she was discussing.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts