The New Taiwan dollar yesterday ended unchanged against the US dollar at NT$30.842, but slid 0.1 percent from NT$30.802 on Jan. 11.
Turnover totaled US$74 million during yesterday’s trading session.
The greenback opened at the day’s high of NT$30.850 and moved to a low of NT$30.830 before rebounding.
Taiwan was the only foreign exchange market to open yesterday to make up for a lost trading session during the upcoming nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, which is to start on Feb. 2.
Due to reduced participation by foreign currency traders, turnover in the session was thin, analysts said.
Elsewhere on Friday, the US dollar held firm against its rivals and was poised for its first weekly gain in five weeks, boosted by optimism about trade talks between China and the US.
US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin discussed lifting some or all tariffs on Chinese goods and suggested offering a tariff rollback during trade discussions scheduled for Jan. 30, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the internal deliberations.
Although a US Department of the Treasury spokesman denied the report, the positive sentiment was enough to lift the US dollar index.
“Yesterday’s [Wall Street Journal] headline concerning a possible rollback of [US President Donald] Trump tariffs was a setback for [the US dollar-Chinese yuan cross], and although it was subsequently denied, it had created confusion in the foreign exchange space,” BMO Capital Markets European head of foreign exchange strategy Stephen Gallo said in London.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) is to visit the US on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31 for talks aimed at resolving the trade standoff between the world’s two largest economies.
Stronger-than-expected US industrial production numbers also helped lift the greenback.
US manufacturing output last month increased by the most in 10 months, pushed up by a surge in the production of motor vehicles and a range of other goods, the US Federal Reserve said on Friday.
Entering this year, weakness in the US dollar was a consensus view among currency market traders. The bet was that the US central bank would stop raising interest rates and the economy would slow after a fiscal boost last year.
While expectations of a US rate pause have manifested in money markets, bets on policy tightening by other major central banks have also receded, giving a boost to the US dollar.
Against a basket of rivals, the US dollar was set to rise 0.6 percent on the week, its first positive week since the middle of last month.
Against the euro, the US dollar had strengthened 0.25 percent to US$1.137, its strongest since Jan. 4.
The pound slipped against the euro, partially trimming overnight gains, as traders wagered on a second referendum vote on Britain’s EU membership.
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