The New Taiwan dollar on Friday remained unchanged against the US dollar, closing at NT$30.500, and mostly flat from NT$30.513 a week earlier.
Turnover totaled US$673 million during the trading session.
The greenback opened at NT$30.510, moving between NT$30.470 and NT$30.520 before the close.
Elsewhere on Friday, the euro was steady against the US dollar, which was headed for its worst week since mid-October due to concern over US-China trade relations and hints of weakness in the US economy.
The New Zealand dollar rebounded amid renewed risk appetite and encouraging domestic factors.
Against a basket of six currencies, the US dollar fell to a one-month low of 97.355, but was last flat at 97.424. The euro was little changed at US$1.1102.
Sterling was 0.2 percent weaker at US$1.3129 and down 0.1 percent against the euro at ￡0.8449, but close to a two-and-a-half-year high as traders grew more confident uncertainty over Brexit would end soon.
US President Donald Trump said US-China trade talks were “moving right along” and that “we’ll have to see” about an increase in tariffs scheduled for Sunday next week.
“The US market is concerned about the Dec. 15 tariffs being enacted, but I don’t think this is going to happen before the end of the year,” Boston Private chief investment officer Shannon Saccocia said, adding that she has not made any investment decisions that implied the tariffs would be implemented.
However, markets were unconvinced, with worries stemming from a lack of similar enthusiasm from China, keeping the US dollar subdued.
Chinese officials reiterated that some US tariffs must be rolled back for a deal to end the 17-month trade war, something Washington has given no sign of doing.
Risk sentiment recovered, pushing the New Zealand dollar to a four-month high of US$0.6569.
“My guess — and it’s just a guess — is that the rally in NZD may have started with a recovery in risk sentiment” driven by Trump’s comments, ACLS Global strategist Marshall Gittler said.
The New Zealand dollar also got a boost from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Deputy Governor Geoff Bascand saying in a Bloomberg interview that economic developments are “supportive of the story that we’re near or around that turning point” in the economic cycle, Gittler said.
US nonfarm payrolls data due later in the day come after dismal numbers showed weak private payrolls, soft services activity and a shrinking manufacturing sector.
A Reuters poll showed a forecast of 180,000 jobs being added in the US last month. Anything short of that might leave the US Federal Reserve reconsidering its wait-and-see mode when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“There is a greater potential for an exaggerated move if we see a big divergence from expectations,” CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said in Sydney. “The risk is in both directions ... below 150,000 or above 210,000, we could see a significant market reaction.”
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
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
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