The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose 0.76 percent, or NT$0.231, against the US dollar to close the day at NT$30.325 in Taipei trading after US President Donald Trump said in an interview that the US dollar was getting “too strong” and he would prefer that the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates low.
The central bank seems to have no intention of intervening in the market to keep the NT dollar weak amid concerns that Taiwan could be named a currency manipulator by Washington when the US Department of the Treasury publishes its annual currency report today, dealers said.
Yesterday’s appreciation of the NT dollar was milder than a 1.04 percent increase of the South Korean won and a 1.23 percent rise of the Australian dollar, the central bank said in a statement.
The statement suggests that the latest movement in the local currency is not abnormal, but falls in line with the global trend, dealers said.
Turnover amounted to US$861 million in Taipei trading, up from US$545 million the previous day.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday, Trump said that would he prefer a weaker US dollar and his remarks triggered buying of Asian currencies, such as the Japanese yen and the won, which prompted currency traders in Taiwan to raise their holdings of the NT dollar, dealers said.
Meanwhile, the local equity market staged a rebound on the back of foreign institutional buying, putting more pressure on the US dollar throughout the session, dealers said.
According to Taiwan Stock Exchange data, foreign institutional investors yesterday bought a net NT$1.07 billion (US$35.28 million) of local shares, sending the TAIEX up 0.19 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],”
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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