The euro declined versus the US dollar for the first time in three weeks as signs of slowing global economic growth added to concern Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis was worsening, dampening appetite for riskier assets.
The yen rose against the euro as investors sought haven after China’s export growth collapsed, while economists forecast data would show the eurozone’s economy shrank for a second straight quarter. The Canadian dollar gained versus most of its peers as oil climbed for a second week.
“Risk-on was a little stronger in the beginning of the week following the previous week’s comments out of Europe,” Brian Kim, a currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland’s securities unit in Stamford, Connecticut, said on Friday in a telephone interview. “Reality set in that it’s all about the implementation. After the soft China data, people probably put things into neutral and maybe reversed a bit heading into the weekend.”
The 17-nation currency declined 0.8 percent to US$1.2289 this week in New York in its first loss since the five days ended July 20. The euro depreciated versus the yen for the first time in three weeks, falling 1.1 percent to ¥96.17. Japan’s currency rose 0.2 percent to ¥78.28 per US dollar.
Norway’s krone was the biggest winner among major currencies. It climbed 1.8 percent to 7.2702 per euro and touched 7.2502, the strongest since January 2003. The currency advanced 1.1 percent to 5.9149 per US dollar.
The Swedish krona reached the highest level versus the shared currency in 12 years. It touched 8.1784 per euro on Friday, the strongest since June 2000. For the week, it appreciated 1.5 percent to 8.1821, and rose 0.7 percent to 6.6575 per US dollar.
“There’s a lot of focus on these currencies as safe havens with strong fundamentals,” Niels Christensen, chief currency strategist at Nordea Bank AB in Copenhagen, said by telephone on Wednesday. “There’s a double effect of demand for these currencies and a weak euro.”
Canada’s dollar strengthened versus the greenback for a fifth straight week, the longest winning streak since October 2010, amid an increase in crude oil, the nation’s biggest export.
The currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the waterfowl on the one-dollar coin, gained 1 percent to US$0.9911.
The pound advanced for the first time in three weeks against the euro after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said cutting UK interest rates might be counterproductive. It reached the highest this month against the US dollar after King’s comments dampened speculation policymakers would reduce borrowing costs to spur growth.
The pound gained 1.1 percent over the week to £0.7836 per euro at 4:30pm in London on Friday. It climbed 0.3 percent to US$1.5679.
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