The US dollar is regaining its footing after a five-week wobble.
The US currency rose the most since September 2011, as data signaled the economy is starting to recover from a tepid first quarter. Consumer prices rose at a faster pace than expected and housing construction surged last month, giving the US Federal Reserve more evidence that US growth is robust enough to warrant the first interest-rate increase since 2006.
“The fundamentals are improving enough that investors should continue to expect that the Fed does start to raise short-term interest rates,” Kate Warne, a St Louis-based investment strategist at Edward D. Jones & Co, said by phone on Friday.
“That should provide support for the [US] dollar,” Warne said.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback versus 10 major trading partners, rose 2.6 percent to 1,179.86 this week.
The greenback climbed 3.8 percent against the euro to US$1.1013 and 1.9 percent to ¥121.54.
“Growth momentum in the US remains intact largely, and you’ve seen the dollar rally significantly from where we were last week,” Aroop Chatterjee, a New York-based currency strategist at Barclays PLC, said by phone on Thursday. “It’s still a broadly supportive environment.”
Minutes from the US Federal Open Market Committee’s April meeting show policymakers will raise rates when they have seen further improvement in the jobs market and are “reasonably confident” inflation will move back up toward the central bank’s 2 percent goal over the medium term.
Raising rates this year would be “appropriate,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Friday during a speech in Providence, Rhode Island, provided the economy meets her forecasts.
Meanwhile, the British pound continued strengthening versus most of its major peers in the aftermath of the UK election, as the Bank of England has helped shift investors’ focus to economic data.
Sterling posted its best week versus the euro in four months as data showed retail sales rebounded in April.
Britain’s currency appreciated 2.1 percent this week to £0.7125 per euro as of 5pm in London. It dropped 1.6 percent against the US dollar to US$1.5482, following two weeks of gains.
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
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