Sun, Dec 22, 2019 page14

• US dollar set for best week in a month

  • Reuters, LONDON
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  The New Taiwan dollar on Friday shed NT$0.020 against the US dollar to close at NT$30.210, but gained 0.4 percent from NT$30.317 a week earlier.

  The greenback opened at NT$30.215 and hit a low of NT$30.131 before the close. Turnover totaled US$1.308 billion

  Elsewhere on Friday, the US dollar firmed against other major currencies and was set for its best week in six weeks thanks to a stronger tone to economic data that makes a near-term cut in US interest rates unlikely.

  Sterling was on firmer ground at the end of a bad week that has seen it take a beating from renewed concern over a hard Brexit.

  The currency was set for its worst week against the greenback in more than two years and its largest weekly loss since July 2017 versus the euro.

  A final reading of US economic growth in the third quarter, expected later on Friday, was expected to get some attention.

  Data this week has fueled expectations that the US Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates again in the near future.

  The US dollar index was a touch firmer at 97.54. It has recovered almost 0.9 percent from five-month lows hit last week and was up 0.4 percent this week, poised for its biggest weekly rise since early last month.

  “The small bounce in the [US] dollar index probably sets us up for slightly better levels to sell into next year,” CIBC Capital Markets head of G10 foreign exchange strategy Jeremy Stretch said.

  “We still favor a cheaper [US] dollar, due to growth headwinds in the US relative to elsewhere. There are also factors such as elevated political risk as we head into [next year’s US presidential election],” he added.

  In thin pre-holiday trade, the euro weakened 0.25 percent to US$1.10930, while the US dollar was a touch firmer at ￥109.39.

  Against the Swiss franc, the dollar was 0.25 percent firmer at SF0.98085, rebounding from four-month lows hit against the safe-haven currency this week.

  “We’ve held a constructive view on the [US] dollar for two years and expect it to hold relatively steady in the first half of next year, then weaken against the euro as we think the Fed will have to cut rates again,” Cooperatieve Rabobank UA currency strategist Piotr Matys said.

  Britain’s pound strengthened, having tumbled sharply from about 19-month highs against the US dollar hit last week after a resounding election win for the ruling Conservative Party boosted hopes that near-term Brexit uncertainty would end.

  It was 0.2 percent firmer at US$1.3030 and up 0.4 percent at ￡0.8514 per euro.

  Still, the currency was headed for its biggest weekly losses against the US dollar and euro in more than two years.

  More than three years since Britain voted to exit the EU in a 2016 referendum, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is to leave the political bloc at the end of next month and has set December next year as a hard deadline to reach a trade agreement, knocking sterling.

  “The market was always a little bit naive in a way to think that a Tory election win was going to remove the fog of Brexit,” National Australia Bank Ltd head of foreign exchange strategy Ray Attrill said.

  “There were obviously some longs in weak hands that got forced out,” he added.

  Additional reporting by staff writer
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