The New Taiwan dollar weakened for the second straight day against the greenback after central bank intervention and rising demand for US dollars, but the price adjustment is soon to end, dealers said yesterday.
The NT dollar shed 0.99 percent, or NT$0.331, to trade at NT$33.90 against its US counterpart at the 4pm close, data from Taipei Forex Inc showed. It opened at NT$33.95, rose to NT$33.79 and then sank to NT$34 during the trading session. The local currency had waned NT$0.31 on Tuesday, for a loss of NT$0.65 in the last two days.
A dealer from a local bank attributed the latest wave of depreciation to central bank intervention.
“The monetary regulator has led the buying of US dollars for two days to warn traders not to speculate on the local currency,” the dealer said by telephone on condition of anonymity. “Speculation was responsible for a strong NT dollar [previous to the intervention].”
Turnover was US$1.154 billion on Taipei Forex and US$567 million on the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange, US$1.721 billion in total, statistics from the two companies showed.
In a brief statement, the central bank said the local currency was relatively stable when compared with the South Korean won. It said the NT dollar’s 0.99 percent fall against the greenback yesterday compared with a drop of 2.36 percent in the South Korean won.
The dealer said room for the NT dollar to weaken further was limited in the short term and that the currency was likely to hover around the NT$34 level.
“We’ll probably not see big fluctuations in the value of the NT dollar in the coming weeks,” the dealer said.
Another dealer agreed that the depreciation would soon come to an end, as the central bank appears to want to keep the currency in a range between NT$33.50 and NT$34.
“The foreign exchange market is likely to remain calm for the rest of this month,” the trader said.
The recent weakness came as global funds cut their holdings of local shares by NT$10.2 billion (US$301 million). Shares slumped globally after investors, including George Soros, said a rally over the last four weeks was unsustainable.
“There’s a clear heightening of risk aversion as equities in the US and Asia both declined,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets Ltd in Hong Kong. “We are seeing increased volatility in Taiwan’s dollar because the market data continues to be weak.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BLOOMBERG
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
‘SACRED MOUNTAIN’: The chipmaker can form joint ventures abroad, except in China, but like other firms, it needs government approval for large investments Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) needs government permission for any overseas joint ventures (JVs), but there are no restrictions on making the most advanced chips overseas other than for China, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. US media have said that TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp, has been in talks for a stake in Intel Corp. Neither company has confirmed the talks, but US President Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of taking away the US’ semiconductor business and said he wants the industry back
RSS