The dollar fell to a one-week low against the euro in Asia after Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Federal Reserve can wait before raising interest rates.
Snow on Monday said tame US inflation will let the Fed "wait and be patient" before raising its benchmark target rate from a 45-year low of 1 percent, half that of the European Central Bank and one-quarter of the UK's key interest rate.
"The US is not ready at all to move forward to raising interest rates," said Xinyi Lu, chief strategist in Tokyo at UFJ Bank Ltd, a unit of Japan's fourth-largest lender. "The dollar resumed its weakening trend as it's not attractive."
The dollar fell to US$1.2443 per euro at 2:59pm yesterday in Tokyo from US$1.2405 late in New York on Monday, according to EBS prices, the lowest since March 2. The US currency may drop to US$1.3 per euro within three months, Lu said. The dollar was also at ?111.25 from ?111.18.
The US consumer price index, excluding food and energy prices, rose 1.1 percent in January from a year earlier, matching the gain for last year, the smallest annual increase in 43 years, according to Labor Department data.
The US currency has declined 12 percent against the euro in the past year as lower interest rates in the US diminished the attraction of dollar-denominated assets. The dollar had its biggest decline in five weeks on Friday after a report showed US employers created 21,000 jobs in February, below the lowest forecast of economists.
The job figures caused traders to scale back their expectations of a US interest rate increase.
The rate on the September Eurodollar futures contract has fallen 16.5 basis points in the past three days to 1.305 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
``The euro's strength is surely taking its toll on the European economy,'' said Shimpei Uike, who helps manage the equivalent of $600 million of foreign debt in Tokyo at Asahi Life Asset Management Co. ``The euro's appeal doesn't have much to do with the economy, but more to do with the dollar's weakness.''
Any decline in the dollar against the yen may prompt Japan to sell its currency to protect exporters' earnings, said traders and investors including Chris Melendez. The dollar yesterday had its biggest one-day drop against the yen in six weeks.
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
Taiwanese shares yesterday posted a record daily gain of more than 1,700 points to close above 40,000 points for the first time, led by large-cap semiconductor stocks such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) amid optimism about the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The TAIEX ended up 1,778.51 points, or 4.57 percent, at 40,705.14 after moving between 39,228.39 and 40,755.52, while the New Taiwan dollar closed up NT$0.038 at NT$31.610 per US dollar, ending three consecutive sessions of declines. Turnover on the main board totaled NT$1.007 trillion (US$31.9 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$66.98 billion
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
NON-INTERFERENCE: The US called Taiwan a trusted and capable partner, while an African Union leader urged nations to reflect on respect for sovereign choices Taiwan is a “trusted and capable” partner of the US and Taipei’s global relationships, including with Eswatini, provide significant benefits, the US Department of State said of President William Lai’s (賴清德) trip to the southern African kingdom. Lai arrived in the former Swaziland on Saturday on a surprise visit after a planned trip last month was canceled when Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar denied overflight permission for his aircraft due to Chinese pressure. “Taiwan is a trusted and capable partner of the United States and many others, and its relationships around the world provide significant benefits to the citizens of those countries,
RSS