Thailand's baht held near its strongest level in a decade as overseas investors increased purchases of the nation's stocks.
The baht had the biggest weekly gain since January after rising through 34 baht per US dollar on Thursday for the first time since the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
A break of 36 baht to the dollar prompted the government on Dec. 18 to impose restrictions on capital inflows, a move that sparked a 3.2 percent decline in the currency that week.
Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase on Thursday said the bank was "working" to curb the advance.
The baht was at 34.03 per dollar in onshore trading on Friday, taking gains for the week to 1.5 percent, the most since the five days ended Jan. 19. It rose as high as 33.97 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The baht is the best performer over the past month among 10 of the most-active currencies in Asia.
NT dollar
The US dollar gained ground against the new Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange on Friday, increasing NT$0.020 to close at NT$32.809.
The US currency opened at NT$32.759 and fluctuated between NT$32.759 and NT$32.882.
Singapore dollar
The Singapore dollar had the best week since March 23 on prospects the island's economic growth will accelerate.
The currency on Thursday reached the strongest level since May 16 before a government report next week that may show GDP expanded an annualized 7.7 percent in the second quarter after rising 7.6 percent in the first, a Bloomberg News survey showed. The report is due on Tuesday.
The Singapore dollar advanced 0.7 percent this week to S$1.5209, rising for a third week.
Won
South Korea's won rose on speculation increasing exports will help boost growth in Asia's third-largest economy.
The won on Friday climbed 0.3 percent to 919.60 against the US dollar, taking this week's advance to 0.5 percent, according to Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd.
Asian roundup
Elsewhere in Asia, the Philippine peso advanced 0.4 percent to 46.065 this week, while the Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah were little changed in the five-day period at 3.4492 and 9,033, respectively. The Vietnamese dong traded at 16,128 from 16,135 last Friday.
US dollar
The US dollar weakened against the euro on Friday despite a strong US jobs report, as it failed to reverse expectations that the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates could be a reduction.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 132,000 last month, which was close to consensus, while May's data were revised up to an impressive 190,000 increase.
Yen, euro
Friday afternoon in New York, the euro was at US$1.3623 from US$1.3598 late on Thursday, while the US dollar was at ¥23.39 from ¥22.90.
The euro was at ¥68.09 from ¥67.10 late on Thursday. Sterling was at US$2.0107 from US$2.0118, while the dollar was at 1.2183 Swiss francs from SF1.2173 late on Thursday.
Despite the dollar's struggles against the euro, the strong jobs report helped the buck regain its footing against the yen and exit the session stronger than its day-earlier numbers.
Sterling
The British pound suffered overnight despite a government report that showed UK manufacturing output reached its strongest level in almost six years in May. But the pound rebounded during the New York session on the back of general dollar weakness and ended the session little changed from day-earlier numbers.
Sterling is one of the best-performing currencies among the majors, and on Wednesday reached a 26-year high of US$2.0206 against the dollar on expectations that the Bank of England will continue to hike rates this year.
Canadian dollar
Elsewhere, Canada's dollar surged to a fresh 30-year high on Friday, boosted by general weakness in the US dollar and a Canadian jobs report showing Canada's economy created more than twice as many jobs as expected last month.
Employers hired a net 34,800 workers, the most since March and well above the 17,000 rise that economists expected.
The data pushed the US dollar to as low as C$1.0462, its lowest mark since May 1977 and down from C$1.0570 late on Thursday.
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs