The US dollar rose on Friday and posted its third straight week of gains against a basket of major currencies, as uncertainty over beleaguered property developer China Evergrande Group (恆大集團) helped the greenback bounce back from a sharp decline in the prior session.
The Chinese firm owes US$305 billion and has run short on cash, missing a Thursday deadline for paying US$83.5 million and leaving investors questioning whether it would make the payment before a 30-day grace period expires.
A collapse of the company could create systemic risks to China’s financial system.
THURSDAY DROP
The safe-haven US dollar had its biggest one-day percentage drop in about a month on Thursday, after Beijing injected new cash into the financial system and Evergrande announced that it would make interest payments on an onshore bond, boosting risk sentiment.
The offshore Chinese yuan weakened versus the greenback to yuan 6.4641 per dollar.
The decline came a day after the greenback was lifted by Wednesday’s announcement from the US Federal Reserve that it would likely begin to trim its monthly bond purchases as soon as November and flagged interest rate increases might follow suit sooner than expected as the central bank moves away from its COVID-19 crisis policies.
MULTIPLE FACTORS
“We are in one of the situations, and this doesn’t always happen, where the dollar is the beneficiary of multiple ideas,” FXStreet.com senior analyst Joseph Trevisani said.
“The US economy does look better than most of its competitors, there is lingering fear out there over Evergrande and what else is out there in the rather untransparent Chinese economy and political system, plus the Fed appears finally ready,” Trevisani said.
The US dollar index rose 0.237 percent, with the euro down 0.2 percent at US$1.1713.
NEW TAIWAN DOLLAR
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar, gaining NT$0.042 to close at NT$27.731, up a slight 0.02 percent from NT$27.736 a week earlier.
Sterling weakened a day after hawkish comments from the Bank of England on Thursday pushed the pound to its biggest one-day percentage gain since Aug. 23.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.43 percent to ￥110.77 versus the greenback, while Sterling declined 0.36 percent to US$1.3676.
Additional reporting by CNA, with staff writer
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS