The euro’s nine-month tumble is history.
The 19-nation currency posted its biggest weekly gain versus the US dollar in six weeks on signs the European Central Bank’s (ECB) stimulus plan has the region’s economy ready to generate stronger growth and inflation. Meanwhile, US first-quarter economic growth was slower than forecast, fanning speculation the Federal Reserve would not rush to raise interest rates.
“The euro has looked heavily oversold for a while,” Shaun Osborne, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said by e-mail. “It has brought a much needed correction to the market.”
The euro gained 3 percent to US$1.1199 this week in New York, staging a six-day climb that was the longest rally in more than a year. The 4.6 percent rise last month was the first since June last year and largest since September 2010.
The shared currency strengthened 4 percent to ¥134.58 this week, the biggest gain in two years. Japan’s currency fell 1 percent to ¥120.15 per US dollar.
Hedge funds and money managers reduced net bearish bets for the euro to weaken against the US dollar again after reaching a record on March 31, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Futures positions betting on a weaker euro were at 197,766 contracts as of Tuesday, compared with 214,645 a week earlier.
Euro-area consumer prices ended a four-month streak of declines last month after falling 0.1 percent in March. The ECB seeks to foster inflation close to 2 percent.
The signs of rising prices reflected results for the central bank’s bond-buying program, sending the euro higher and helping fuel a rout in euro-area bond markets.
Government bond yields moved higher in Germany and other nations, adding to the allure of euro-denominated assets.
Meanwhile, sterling climbed 3.6 percent last month against the US currency, the most since September 2013, even as opinion polls continued to point to no overall winner in Britain’s election on Thursday.
Friday’s drop left the pound 0.4 percent lower this week at US$1.5135, as of 5pm in London.
Sterling weakened 3.2 percent to £0.7396 per euro this week as the common currency rallied against all of its 16 major peers.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained