The euro gained against the US dollar on Friday, heading up above 1.18-dollar mark again as weak US economic data sparked speculation of a fresh interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.
The single European currency climbed to US$1.1828 from US$1.1764 late on Thursday in New York.
The dollar was at ¥117.47 from ¥117.63 on Thursday.
Faith in a much-vaunted post-Iraq war recovery in the US economy was dealt a fresh blow with the publication of data signaling waning consumer confidence, in turn solidifying US rate cut hopes, analysts said.
"The data makes a US rate cut more likely," said Standard Chartered analyst Julian Jessop.
Consumer sentiment in the US weakened this month after two months of solid gains, widely watched data showed.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to 87.2 points from 92.1 last month, confounding expectations of a slight improvement to 93.7.
Bear Sterns economists said in a research note in the wake of the report that the futures market for so-called Fed funds was pricing in a 40 basis point easing of monetary policy at the Federal Reserve's meeting on June 25.
This can be interpreted as a "certain expectation that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter point and a 60 percent probability that the rate cut will be 50 basis points," they said.
But despite the fall in consumer sentiment, confidence remains well above the average levels of the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, they added.
"Though disappointing, the 4.9-point drop in sentiment in early June needs to be compared to the 14.5-point increase over the prior two months," they added.
There was more US data during the afternoon but their impact was muted.
The US trade deficit narrowed to US$42 billion in April from a revised US$42.9 billion in March -- in line with market expectations. Also, headline US producer price index for finished goods fell 0.3 percent last month from the previous month, fueling concerns about deflation.
The euro was changing hands at US$1.1828 from US$1.1764 late on Thursday in New York, ¥138.38, £0.7089 and 1.5428 Swiss francs.
The dollar was being quoted at ¥117.47 and 1.3043 Swiss francs.
The pound was at US$1.6685, ¥195.97 and 2.1772 Swiss francs.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold stood at US$353.05 an ounce from US$352.25 on Thursday.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS