The US dollar snapped its longest weekly rally since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 after the US Federal Reserve expressed concern that the currency’s strength posed a risk to the country’s economic outlook.
The US Dollar Index, which Intercontinental Exchange Inc uses the gauge to track the greenback against the currencies of six trade partners, fell 0.9 percent to 85.91 this week.
The index had rallied for 12 straight weeks, the longest since at least 1971, when currencies began to float after the US abandoned the Bretton Woods system that pegged the greenback to the price of gold.
The US currency fell 0.9 percent to US$1.2628 per euro, the biggest weekly decline in six months, while dropping 1.9 percent to ￥107.66 as Europe’s single currency slipped 1 percent to ￥135.96.
Hungary’s forint and South Africa’s rand led gains against the greenback on optimism that US policymakers will not accelerate hikes in record low borrowing costs that have supported global growth.
In London, a Friday report showed UK construction output unexpectedly shrank in August, adding to signs the outlook for the British economy is darkening amid a faltering eurozone, Britain’s largest trading partner.
Bank of England officials held their main interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent this week, as forecast by all economists in a survey by Bloomberg News.
Sterling slipped 0.4 percent to ￡0.7870 per euro this week, while climbing 0.5 percent to US$1.6048, the biggest gain since July.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
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