The New Taiwan dollar and Philippine peso led gains in Asian currencies this week as China’s exports beat economists’ estimates, boding well for the regional economic recovery and trade.
The yuan rounded out its best week in a month after China’s trade surplus swelled to US$22.9 billion last month as exports and imports surged to records. Malaysia’s ringgit rose for a second week, its best winning streak in two months, after reports showed overseas shipments and manufacturing grew more than analysts had predicted.
“China’s export surprise will mean strong demand for products made in the rest of Asia,” said Julie Yu, a Taipei-based -foreign-exchange trader at Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行). “Economic growth in the region will continue to support gains in Asian currencies.”
Taiwan’s dollar appreciated 0.5 percent to NT$30.585 against the greenback this week, the peso rose 0.5 percent to 43.675, the ringgit climbed 0.2 percent to 3.1345 and the yuan gained 0.12 percent to 6.6556, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The NT dollar advanced for a second week after the government reported on Tuesday that exports increased a better-than-forecast 21.8 percent last month from a year earlier. Consumer prices rose 1.53 percent, the fastest in nine months, data the day before showed.
Global funds bought a total of US$1.3 billion more stocks than they sold in Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand this week, exchange data show. The IMF predicts Asia’s developing economies will expand 9.4 percent this year, while advanced economies will grow 2.7 percent.
South Korea’s won fell 0.4 percent for the week to 1,143.60 per US dollar and Indonesia’s rupiah dropped 0.1 percent to 9,018. India’s rupee was little changed at 45.11 and the Thai baht traded at 30.08 from 30.05 a week earlier.
The US dollar rose the most since September against the euro this week after an agreement to extend and expand tax cuts fueled speculation the US economy will accelerate, driving stocks and Treasury yields higher and boosting demand for greenback-denominated assets.
The US currency strengthened against most of its major counterparts this week as reports showed claims for jobless benefits decreased, exports swelled to a two-year high and consumer sentiment climbed. The euro fell against the greenback after Ireland’s credit rating was downgraded and the region’s political leaders differed about how to contain the debt crisis. The US Federal Reserve holds a policy meeting next week as it continues to buy Treasuries to bolster the economy.
The dollar rose 1.4 percent to US$1.3226 per euro, from US$1.3414 on Dec. 3. It touched US$1.3165 per euro on Thursday, the strongest since Dec. 2. The US currency added 1.7 percent to ￥83.95, from ￥82.53 last week. The euro added 0.3 percent to ￥111.04 from ￥110.73.
The pound gained 1.6 percent this week, and traded at ￡0.8371 per euro on Friday. It was little changed in the week, trading at US$1.5793.
Sterling has gained 0.2 percent in the past month, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes, which track a basket of 10 developed-country currencies. Since the end of last year, Britain’s currency has lost 3.7 percent, compared with a 9.5 percent decline by the euro.
The pound outperformed the 16-nation euro as the region’s debt crisis boosted demand for UK assets as a haven. The Bank of England this week kept its benchmark interest rate steady at 0.5 percent and held its asset-purchase program unchanged at ￡200 billion.
“There’s more gloom elsewhere,” said Chris Furness, head of foreign exchange strategy at 4Cast Ltd in London.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS