Bank of Japan (BoJ) Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida yesterday said that officials would stick to their ultra-loose monetary policies given market volatility, sparking a big drop in the yen.
“As for the future conduct of monetary policy, in a nutshell, I believe that the bank needs to maintain monetary easing with the current policy interest rate for the time being, with developments in financial and capital markets at home and abroad being extremely volatile,” Uchida said in a speech.
He said the yen has “appreciated significantly against the US dollar, since large positions that had been built up on a weaker yen are being unwound.”
Photo: AFP
“Moreover, partly due to the correction of the yen’s depreciation, stock prices in Japan have declined to a greater extent than other economies,” he added.
After his speech, the yen weakened further to more than ￥146 per US dollar, having hit less than ￥142 on Monday.
The Nikkei 225 index finished 1.2 percent higher at 35,089.62, while the broader TOPIX added 2.3 percent to 2,489.21, reversing earlier declines.
Investors were jittery after the Nikkei surged more than 10 percent on Tuesday, a day after tanking 12.4 percent on concerns about a possible US recession and the stronger yen.
The stronger yen had thrown a spanner into a common trading strategy of borrowing at low interest rates in Japan and investing in high-yielding assets elsewhere, such as US technology stocks.
With the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan rates going in different directions this so-called yen carry trade saw many investors dump assets to cover their positions.
While there is relative calm on trading floors at the moment, observers warned investors to remain wary.
“It is important to note that the current situation may continue for some time, as it did during the recovery from the 1987 Black Monday. The increased market volatility shouldn’t be ignored,” Asset Management One Co said in a commentary.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
RSS