The New Taiwan dollar on Friday rose NT$0.027 against the US dollar to close at NT$31.520, trimming losses to a 0.7 percent depreciation against the greenback from NT$31.297 a week earlier.
Turnover totaled US$923 million during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$31.550, moving between NT$31.498 and NT$31.564 before the close.
Elsewhere on Friday, the US dollar fell from a two-year high against a basket of major currencies after orders for US-made capital goods fell, further evidence that manufacturing and the broader economy are slowing, due in part to a US-China trade dispute.
The weaker-than-expected data, a closely watched indicator for business spending plans, drove the US dollar lower and added to a fall that began on Thursday following a report that showed manufacturing activity this month hit its lowest level in almost a decade.
Taken together, the reports suggested a sharp slowdown in US economic growth is under way, which could affect the US dollar’s safe-haven status.
The US dollar index was down 0.27 percent at 97.587. It was also 0.8 percent off a two-year high of 98.371 hit in the previous session.
Some had analysts initially believed that a trade war would be a boon for the US dollar — because the currency serves as a safe haven in times of uncertainty and because the US was likely to be hurt the least, but that has not proven to be true.
“The IMF suggests that US import tariffs are mainly paid for by US companies, depressing their profit margins. Hence, it should not be surprising to see US capex plans being cut radically, which should soon translate into moderating labor market conditions,” Morgan Stanley global head of foreign exchange strategy Hans Redeker wrote.
China on Friday denounced US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for fabricating rumors after he said that the chief executive of China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) was lying about his company’s ties to Beijing.
Escalating trade tensions and weak data have fueled rate cut expectations by the US Federal Reserve. Money markets now broadly expect one rate cut by October, followed by another by January next year.
“In the current circumstances, we strongly suspect that further escalation in protectionism will lead the Fed to consider easing policy,” TD Securities head of global macro strategy Michael Hanson wrote. “Increases in inflation should be relatively short-lived, while the hit to growth could be more persistent.”
US dollar weakness also helped boost sterling from a four-and-a-half-month low, although the rally was primarily driven by British Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement that she would quit after failing to deliver a Brexit deal.
The pound was last up 0.5 percent at US$1.272.
The euro was also stronger, rising 0.24 percent to US$1.121, benefiting from the US dollar’s weakness.
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
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