The US dollar on Friday gained slightly and posting its largest weekly gain in more than a month as investors eyed rising bond yields and continued to make bets on the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking path.
The US currency gained steam as the session wore on and was up against the euro and the yen, but was down slightly against sterling, which regained some lost ground after a volatile session on Thursday following the release of Britain’s budget.
In the US on Thursday, investors had reacted to hawkish policymaker comments with St Louis Fed President James Bullard saying that even under a “generous” analysis of monetary policy, the Fed needs to keep raising rates as its tightening so far “had only limited effects on observed inflation.”
Photo: Reuters
The euro was down 0.39 percent against the US dollar at US$1.0326 after earlier rising as much as 0.29 percent. The pound pared gains against the greenback and rose 0.19 percent to US$1.1888 after earlier gaining as much as 0.7 percent.
Both the euro and sterling had hit multi-month highs against the US dollar earlier this week after inflation data showed an easing in US price pressures.
Joseph Trevisani, senior analyst at FXStreet, pointed to hawkish remarks from Fed officials such as Bullard which “helped to thwart speculation that the Fed was nearing a pause” in its campaign against inflation, and set the stage for gains in the US dollar along with US Treasury yields.
“A two-day recovery in US Treasury rates has given the dollar a modest improvement after last week’s sharp inflation driven sell-off,” Trevisani said.
Some analysts also said that investors might be positioning for the year-end after the US dollar’s strong run so far this year.
Against the yen, the dollar was up 0.13 percent at ￥140.39.
The New Taiwan dollar shrank against the US dollar, losing NT$0.012 to close at NT$31.170, but gained 0.76 percent from NT$31.410 a week earlier.
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.26 percent at 106.97 after falling 0.33 percent earlier in the day.
The index was up 0.64 percent on the week — its biggest weekly gain since early October.
Additional reporting by CNA, with staff writer
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS