Emerging-market currencies posted their biggest weekly gain in 17 years and stocks rallied as prospects for a US interest rate increase this year receded and oil traded around the highest level since late August.
An index tracking 20 developing-nation exchange rates climbed 3.5 percent this week, recovering from its biggest quarterly loss since 2011. Indonesia’s rupiah and Russia’s ruble were the best performers, with gains of at least 7.9 percent against the US dollar.
Trading in Fed futures indicates a 39 percent likelihood of an increase in US interest rates in December, down from 60 percent a month ago, after minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed officials are concerned about China’s slowing growth and the risk of a stronger dollar weighing on US exports.
However, Pacific Investment Management Co, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and Commonwealth Bank of Australia said this week does not mark the start of a turnaround in emerging currencies.
Indonesia’s rupiah has jumped 9.2 percent against the greenback since Oct. 2, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. The ruble strengthened 7.9 percent, while Malaysia’s ringgit rose 6.9 percent.
The New Taiwan dollar closed at NT32.85 on Thursday.
Pimco, which oversees US$1.52 trillion of assets, on Thursday said it expects emerging-market currencies to come under renewed pressure and favors investments that will profit from their depreciation.
The rally is unlikely to endure because of slowing growth and prospects of policy easing in Asia, Singapore-based Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd senior strategist Khoon Goh said.
“While a delay in Fed rate-hike expectations may have been the catalyst for the sharp rally in Asian currencies this week, we do not believe this is the start of a turnaround,” Goh wrote in a report on Friday. “We still see challenging times ahead for Asian currencies.”
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 1.3 percent to 859.32 on Friday, pushing its gain for the week to 6.9 percent.
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