The Japanese yen jumped on Friday as investors sought protection against volatile stock moves, while the greenback dipped as stocks traded higher after a dramatic week capped by large price swings.
The benchmark S&P 500 tested its 20-month low early in the week and was at the brink of bear market territory before the three main US indices roared back with their biggest daily surge in nearly a decade on Wednesday and a late rally on Thursday.
The yen gained despite higher stocks, soft domestic data and a decline in benchmark Japanese bond yields, which fell back into negative territory for the first time in more than a year.
“That suggests that there’s still demand for some insurance against extended volatility over the holiday period that’s keeping the yen better supported,” said Shaun Osborne, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.
The Japanese currency was up 0.66 percent against the greenback at ¥110.26, up 0.9 percent from last week’s ¥111.3.
Another safe-haven currency, the Swiss franc, on Friday also jumped 0.82 percent to SF0.9794 per US dollar, up from a 1:1 pairing last week.
“Markets are a bit more cautious on risk appetite, with the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc gaining,” said Lee Hardman, a foreign-exchange strategist at MUFG in London.
The US dollar index, a gauge of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.19 percent to 96.39, down 0.6 percent for the week.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar on Friday rose NT$0.069 against the US dollar to close at NT$30.733, up 0.3 percent for the week.
Still, the NT dollar fell 2.88 percent against the greenback this year.
The US currency has been hurt in the past few weeks by rising expectations that the US Federal Reserve will pause its tightening cycle sooner than expected, or risk harming the US economy with further interest rate increases.
A partial shutdown of the US federal government, trade tensions between the US and China, and complications relating to Britain’s exit from the EU are also keeping investors cautious.
“There’s still a lot of potential risk and uncertainty out there,” Osborne said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
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