The US dollar dropped for the sixth time in seven days after the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off on raising interest rates fueled concern about global economic growth.
The greenback fell against most of its major peers after policymakers kept borrowing costs at a record low on Thursday, citing low inflation, an uncertain outlook for global growth and recent financial-market turmoil. It slid most against the currencies of commodity-producing nations, including New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
“The dollar right now, certainly within the Group of 10, at best is in no-man’s land,” Steven Englander, global head of Group of 10 currency strategy at Citigroup Inc in New York, said by telephone. “It still could see some weakening pressures.”
The dollar fell 0.4 percent to ¥119.50 as of 10:01am New York time, extending its weekly drop to 0.9 percent. The greenback was little changed at US$1.1405 per euro, after tumbling 1.3 percent on Thursday. It has declined 0.6 percent against Europe’s common currency this week.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slid 0.2 percent to 1,191.83, headed for its lowest close since Aug. 24.
“The main drivers of the turbulence have been concerns about the global outlook,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday. “There are a lot of cross currents in economic and financial developments that we need to take into account.”
The decision to hold rates spurred a rally in the currencies of commodity-exporting nations and emerging markets.
“We’re seeing a slightly weaker dollar, as you would expect,” said Anne Richards, chief investment officer of Aberdeen Asset Management, which manages US$483 billion.
“That will be helpful to some parts of the world, which is why you’ve seen a little bit more encouragement come out of some of the emerging markets,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Futures trading shows the probability of a Fed rate increase this year dropped to 46 percent from 64 percent the day before the Fed meeting.
The calculation is based on the assumption that the effective Fed funds rate will average 0.375 percent after the first increase, near the mid-point of the range.
“There’s not much to make you particularly want to love the dollar,” London-based Societe Generale SA global strategist Kit Juckes said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “There isn’t really a currency out there that I’m particularly enamored with — the dollar is the winner at the margin.”
The US currency dropped 1.1 percent against the Australian dollar to US$0.725. It slumped 1.3 percent to US$6433 per New Zealand dollar
Struggling emerging market currencies gained as the Fed stood pat. The South Korea won added 0.27 percent, the Malaysian ringgit gained 0.64 percent, and India’s rupee was 1 percent higher. The Thai baht and New Taiwan dollar also laid on further gains, with the NT dollar down NT0.001 at NT$32.663.
The yuan rose to a one-week high as China’s foreign-exchange regulator said depreciation pressure has almost disappeared.
The yuan gained 0.08 percent to 6.3660 a dollar in Shanghai, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices show. It earlier advanced to 6.3647, the strongest since Friday last week.
The British pound gained 1 percent in the week to US$1.5582 as of 5:23pm London time, after a 1.7 percent advance in the previous week. Sterling appreciated 0.7 percent to £73.01 per euro, the first weekly increase since July 31.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six