The New Taiwan dollar on Friday fell against the US dollar, shedding NT$0.008 to close at NT$30.594, but gaining 0.1 percent from NT$30.611 on Oct. 18.
Turnover totaled US$703 million during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$30.600, and moved between NT$30.566 and NT$30.610 before the close.
Elsewhere, the US dollar strengthened against the pound after Reuters reported that a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said that an extension to negotiations for Britain’s exit from the EU was not justified at this stage.
“France wants a justified and proportionate extension. However, we have nothing of the sort so far. We must show the British that it is up to them to clarify the situation and that an extension is not a given,” the source said.
Against the pound, the US dollar was up 0.29 percent to US$1.281.
Since hitting a five-and-a-half-month high on Monday, sterling has fallen nearly 1.5 percent after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s timetable to pass legislation that would withdraw Britain from the EU was rejected by parliament, the reason for the requested extension.
On Thursday, Johnson called for a general election on Dec. 12 in an effort to break the political deadlock over Brexit.
Despite the uncertainty, the pound’s fall has been limited, as the chance of a “no-deal exit has been all, but eliminated. The pound remains up 4.34 percent this month.
Against the euro, it was down 0.17 percent to ￡0.8655 per euro.
“There’s still a focus on the UK and sterling, but that’s going to be a feature for a long time,” Credit Suisse Group AG global head of foreign exchange strategy Shahab Jalinoos said.
Apart from the ongoing Brexit saga, Jalinoos said that the international currency market was relatively quiet on Friday.
“At the moment, the market is taking a breather on most fronts. The next event that’s a major focus is the APEC summit in the middle of November, when the market will want to see what transpires from phase-one negotiations between the US and China. That’s far enough in the future that it’s eliminating some reasons to aggressively trade,” Jalinoos said.
The low-volatility environment is encouraging flows into certain higher-yielding assets like emerging markets and out of the funding currencies such as the Swiss franc and the euro, he said.
The single currency was last down 0.14 percent against the US dollar to US$1.109.
Some focus will shift next week to the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting. The central bank is on Wednesday expected to announce the third interest rate cut of the year.
Money markets have largely priced in a quarter-percentage-point reduction, Refinitiv data showed.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
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