The US dollar on Friday posted a second week of gains after a turbulent few days when currencies were buffeted by shifting risk appetite, with the market’s focus on next week’s US Federal Reserve meeting.
However, some analysts wondered whether the US dollar’s recent rally might be losing momentum.
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose slightly for the day to 92.91. For the week, added 0.2 percent, after rising 0.6 percent previously.
However, that was off a three-and-a-half-month high of 93.194 hit on Wednesday, after strong Wall Street earnings helped investors regain some confidence amid earlier worries that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 could derail the global recovery.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar fell against the greenback, losing NT$0.010 to close at NT$28.028, little changed from last week’s NT$28.005.
Risk appetite among investors remained high on Friday, with US stocks rising, US Treasuries selling off, most commodity currencies well-bid on the day and the greenback off its peaks.
“The dollar looks tired especially after the rally of the last few weeks,” said Erik Nelson, macro strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in New York. “It seems to be running out of steam both from a fundamental and technical perspective.”
So far this month, the US dollar has gained 0.6 percent, after rising 2.8 percent last month.
However, Nelson was not convinced that the dollar could hold its gains in the coming weeks given the decline in US Treasury yields.
Since the beginning of this month, US benchmark 10-year Treasury yields have lost 16 basis points, on track for their largest monthly fall since March last year.
Against the safe-harbor yen, the US dollar rose 0.3 percent to ￥110.53.
The Australian dollar — viewed as a proxy for risk appetite — slid 0.1 percent to US$0.7374, posting a fourth straight weekly loss. With half the Australian population under lockdown, economists said the country’s central bank could increase stimulus rather than decrease it at its next policy meeting.
Additional reporting by CNA, with staff writer
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS