The dollar topped ¥100 for the first time in five months but weakened against other major currencies on Friday as traders assessed the impact of a weak US employment on economic recovery prospects.
At 9pm GMT, the euro fetched US$1.3483 from US$1.3461 late on Thursday in New York.
The dollar meanwhile rose to ¥100.29 from ¥99.52 as investors welcomed the G20 summit pledge to step up efforts to tackle the economic crisis.
“The actions by Washington and leaders of the 20 largest economies have helped to restore risk appetite,” Kathy Lien at Global Forex Trading said.
In late New York trading, the dollar stood at 1.1301 Swiss francs from SF1.1340 on Thursday.
The pound was at US$1.4836 after US$1.4725.
Asian currencies rose for a fifth week, the longest winning streak since October 2007 in the wake of the G20 summit.
Eight of the 10 most active Asian currencies outside Japan advanced in the week after economic reports in China, the US and the UK fueled speculation that demand for regional exports will strengthen.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks their performance, touched a two-month high on Thursday.
The South Korean won advanced 0.6 percent this week to 1,341.50 per dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New Taiwan dollar climbed 1.2 percent to NT$33.38 and the Malaysian ringgit strengthened 1 percent to 3.5803.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of regional equities climbed 1.4 percent during the week.
The NT dollar touched an 11-week high on Thursday before paring its advance on reported intervention. The central bank bought at least US$1.2 billion of US dollars on Thursday to counter foreign investors’ and local corporations’ purchases of the Taiwanese currency, the Taipei-based Economic Daily News said on Friday.
Elsewhere, the Singapore dollar climbed 0.6 percent this week to S$1.5051, Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.2 percent to 11,475 and the Philippine peso gained 0.4 percent to 47.862.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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