Asian currencies gained last week, led by South Korea’s won, as data indicated regional exports are improving as a global recession abates.
The won snapped a three-week losing streak as overseas investors bought more Korean stocks than they sold on each of the five days and a government report showed the nation’s overseas sales fell last month by the least since October.
The won strengthened 1.5 percent to 1,265.90 per dollar in Seoul from a week ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The New Taiwan dollar reached a three-week high after China’s manufacturing expanded for a fourth month last month, boosting the outlook for trade with Asia’s second-largest economy.
The NT dollar gained 0.1 percent for the week to NT$32.89 against the greenback.
“Given the improvements we’re seeing fundamentally from the trade account side, the won is getting more attractive in real valuation terms,” said Daniel Hui, a Hong Kong-based foreign-exchange strategist at HSBC Holdings PLC. “Some of the data recently were positive. As you get more of these stabilizing factors, volatility should go down.”
The NT dollar pared a weekly advance on speculation the central bank intervened to prevent gains from hurting exporters. The currency rallied on Thursday to the strongest level since June 11 after the government opened 100 industries and infrastructure projects to investors from China.
India’s rupee climbed 0.5 percent to 47.89 and the Philippine peso advanced 0.4 percent to 48.095.
Elsewhere, the Chinese yuan was little changed this week at 6.8324 against the US currency, while Singapore’s dollar advanced 0.1 percent to S$1.4535. Thailand’s baht fell 0.1 percent to 34.08, while Indonesia’s rupiah climbed 0.3 percent to 10,190.
The US dollar rose against the euro in the pat week as speculation the economic recovery is faltering boosted demand for the safety of the US currency.
The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against six major US trading partners, advanced to near the highest in a week after a report showed US employers cut more jobs last month than economists forecast.
The pound had its first weekly loss in a month after a report showed UK service industries were little changed last month as the recession persisted.
The greenback advanced 0.5 percent to US$1.3984 per euro as of 2:08pm in New York on Friday, from US$1.4056 at the end of last week. It reached US$1.3929 on Friday, the strongest level since June 25.
The yen was at ¥134.27 per euro, from ¥133.85 a week earlier. The US currency rose 0.9 percent to ¥96.00.
The pound was at US$1.6328, for a weekly decline of 1.2 percent. The UK currency declined 0.3 percent in the week to ¥156.77, after reaching the weakest level since June 25.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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