The New Taiwan dollar on Friday gained against the US dollar, rising NT$0.006 to close at NT$30.451.
Turnover totaled US$1.098 billion during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$30.430, and moved between NT$30.390 and NT$30.521 before the close.
That compared with a close of NT$30.417 on July 14, with turnover of US$685 million.
The US dollar was on track to record a loss of almost 1 percent for the week, while the euro racked up gains of about 1.8 percent, as investor sentiment shifted in favor of the shared currency on signs that the European Central Bank (ECB) is preparing to pare its support for the economy.
The greenback saw renewed afternoon selling amid the resignation of White House press secretary Sean Spicer after the appointment of financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. The move weighs on investors already considering the effect of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on the president’s ability to advance his economic agenda.
The euro advanced as traders tried to get ahead of the ECB, which has signaled that in the autumn it will discuss tapering its asset-purchase programs.
The Bloomberg euro index gained about 1.6 percent for the week after ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday said discussions would begin on adjusting quantitative easing programs at meetings during the fall, although he steered clear of setting a firm date.
His actions came after weeks of speculation that such a shift was in the works and the euro rallied on the confirmation by Draghi that the ECB remains far from achieving its mandate to get inflation close to, but below, 2 percent, although he indicated that an improved economic outlook will feed through to wages and then prices.
Those expectations have also been expressed by the US Federal Reserve, which is about to embark on its own tapering program, although it too finds its inflation objective elusive.
Amid policy setbacks that have delayed US President Donald Trump’s plans for fiscal stimulus, traders have pared bets that the Fed will raise rates again this year, despite recent assertions from officials. The Fed meets next week to decide on policy and investors will parse its policy statement for any shift in tone or sentiment.
The euro on Friday traded at about US$1.1673 after reaching a fresh 23-month high of US$1.1683 in the afternoon session, the strongest since an August 2015 peak of US$1.1714, an objective for technical traders.
Against the yen, the US dollar was on Friday trading at about ¥111.04, near the session low of ¥111.01, as a drop in US Treasury yields undercut the greenback.
The pair extended declines below an area of technical support just less than ¥112.00 that had underpinned the dollar
While the yen is expected to remain broadly defensive as the Bank of Japan anchors policy rates near zero, it has gained support from an unwind of certain cross-trades, such as against the Australian dollar and the British pound.
The Australian dollar on Friday fell more than 1.4 percent from Thursday’s peak of US$0.7989 and remained well below that level after a Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor pushed back on hawkish interpretations of the central bank’s meeting minutes, saying that a weaker currency would help the Australian economy.
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