The US dollar edged lower against the euro on Friday, hurt by month-end flows and as the common currency continued to enjoy a boost from the EU’s recently announced plan to prop up the bloc’s coronavirus-hit economies with a 750 billion euro (US$828 billion) recovery fund.
The greenback was little moved after US President Donald Trump said that he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong, in response to China’s plans to impose new security legislation in the territory.
“I think traders were bracing for the possibility of new tariffs or sanctions or a pullback on ‘phase one,’ which, of course, didn’t happen,” said John Doyle, vice president of dealing and trading at Tempus Inc in Washington.
The US dollar index, which compares the greenback with six major currencies, slipped 0.09 percent to 98.30, down 1.6 percent for the week and falling 0.7 percent for the month.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar rose against the greenback, gaining NT$0.013 to close at NT$30.032, little changed from Friday last week’s NT$30.009.
The euro on Friday rose about 0.13 percent to US$1.1101, its fourth straight day of gains against the greenback.
The euro’s rally this week has pushed it over its 200-day moving average for the first time since late March and lifted it about 1.7 percent for the week, its best weekly gain in nine weeks.
Much of the euro’s move was driven by optimism generated by the European Commission’s stimulus plan announced this week, as well as investors’ improved appetite for risk-taking as global economies gradually move to reopen after coronavirus-linked shutdowns, analysts said.
Month-end adjustments to portfolio hedges, after a more than 3 percent rally this month for US stocks, was also weighing on the US dollar, AxiCorp Financial Services Pty chief global markets strategist Stephen Innes said.
Additional reporting by CNA, with staff writer
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained