Shares dropped for the first time in five days yesterday. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
"Signs of slowing overseas demand are weighing on investor confidence," said Michael On (
"Exporters will face a harsher environment," he said.
Stocks also fell after a US jobs report raised speculation that Federal Reserve policy makers will cut interest rates less than expected, limiting a boost to the world's largest economy.
The TAIEX index fell 124.35, or 1.4 percent, to close at 8,598.03 in Taipei, after climbing 1.6 percent in the past four trading days. More than three stocks dropped for every one that gained. Futures due this month slid 1.7 percent.
Hon Hai, Taiwan's biggest electronics exporter, declined NT$4, or 2 percent, to NT$200. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
Taiwan's export shipments rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier, slowing from a 14.4 percent gain in the previous month, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. Exports, which account for half of Taiwan's economy, were expected to grow 15 percent according to a Bloomberg News survey.
The US Labor Department said on Friday the jobless rate remained at 4.7 percent for the third month in a row after a gain of 94,000 jobs. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected an increase of 80,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.
The increased workers to payrolls figures prompted traders to lower bets that Fed policy makers will cut borrowing costs by half a percentage point at their meeting today.
Futures contracts indicated a 26 percent chance of a half percentage point cut, compared with a 36 percent likelihood a day earlier. The US is Taiwan's largest export market after China.
AU Optronics Corp (
Nanya Technology Corp (
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子) gained NT$1, or 0.9 percent, to NT$112.
Delta's sales, including those of its business units, rose 29 percent from a year earlier to NT$12.6 billion last month, a company statement said.
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