The dollar on Friday climbed to a two-week peak versus a currency basket, as concerns about the Italian budget weighed on the euro while the greenback drew support from an outlook for multiple US interest rate hikes until 2020.
The US dollar also rose to a nine-month high against the yen.
For the third quarter, the dollar index, a gauge of its value against six major currencies, was on track to post its second consecutive quarterly gain, rising 0.5 percent. For the last six months, the greenback has advanced nearly 6 percent.
“The reasons why the US dollar was going up in the first place have not changed,” said John Taylor, president of global macro research firm Taylor Global Vision in New York.
“Rising US rates at the same time the global economy is showing signs of slowing down and the ongoing trade war still provides a major barrier for any cyclically-sensitive currency, whether it’s an emerging or developed market currency,” he said.
In afternoon trading, the dollar index rose 0.3 percent to 95.144, rising for three straight sessions and and increase of 1 percent for the week.
On Friday, the yen traded at ¥113.59. per US dollar, up 0.9 percent for the week.
US data on Friday all supported the view of an economy that is on a stable growth path.
US consumer spending rose 0.3 percent last month after an unrevised 0.4 percent gain in July, while a measure of underlying inflation remained at the Fed’s 2 percent target for a fourth straight month.
The Chicago Purchasing Management index for September was 60.4, slightly lower than the consensus forecast. The US consumer sentiment index for September, on the other hand, was slightly lower than forecast at 100.1, but still the highest since March.
The euro, meanwhile, slipped below US$1.16 for the first time in two weeks after Italy’s government agreed on a budget seen by some investors as defying Brussels. The euro was last down 0.2 percent at US$1.1613, a drop of 1.7 percent for the week.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar, gaining NT$0.051 to close at NT$30.551, up 0.5 percent from last week’s NT$30.716.
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