The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell against the US dollar, shedding NT$0.024 to close at NT$30.824, but gaining 0.14 percent from NT$30.867 on Dec. 14.
Turnover totaled US$206 million during the trading session. The greenback opened at NT$30.820, moving between NT$30.798 and NT$30.828 before the close.
Elsewhere on Friday, the US dollar gained as investors sought the currency’s safety amid persistent equity market volatility and a possible US government shutdown.
The US dollar had fallen two straight days after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday flagged fewer interest rate hikes for the next two years.
The safe-haven Japanese yen gained versus the greenback on overall market anxiety. On the week, the yen had its best weekly performance in percentage terms since February.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that there was a good chance that the US Senate would not approve his demand for US$5 billion toward funding his border wall project and a government shutdown would probably begin at midnight.
The news undermined Wall Street shares, with the S&P 500, already on pace for its worst December since the Great Depression, hitting its lowest since August last year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to its weakest since October last year, while the NASDAQ sank to a 15-month low, flirting with bear market territory for a second day in a row.
“It’s not clear at this stage whether President Trump would agree to a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government, or would instead seek a government shutdown, which would go into effect at midnight tonight,” Wells Fargo Securities currency strategist Nick Bennenbroek said in New York.
US economic reports on Friday were mixed and had minimal effects on the greenback.
Data showed orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, last month dropped 0.6 percent after an upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase in October.
The US economy also slowed slightly more than previously estimated in the third quarter, and momentum appears to have moderated further in the fourth, according to the US Department of Commerce.
Data also indicated that US consumer spending last month increased solidly, but wage growth remained moderate, suggesting that the current pace of consumption was unlikely to be sustained.
However, the mixed data should not prevent the Fed from raising rates imminently, Capital Economics senior US economist Michael Pearce said in New York.
In afternoon trading, the US dollar index rose 0.7 percent to 96.952, posting its biggest daily percentage increase in two weeks.
The euro, the largest component of the index, fell 0.7 percent versus the US dollar to US$1.1369.
As liquidity thinned ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, large currency options had an impact on the cash market as well. For instance, large options at about US$1.15 also pulled the euro lower.
Meanwhile, the greenback was little changed versus the Japanese currency at ￥111.27.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS