Taiwan's stocks dropped the most in almost five months, paced by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
"Weakening US demand will be reflected in Taiwan's export figures," said Murphy Huang (
Catcher Technology Co (
The Taiex index slumped 337.73, or 4.1 percent, to close at 7,883.37 in Taipei, its biggest decline since Aug. 16. About 19 stocks dropped for every one that gained. January futures fell 4.6 percent.
Hon Hai, Taiwan's biggest electronics exporter, dropped NT$11.50, or 6.3 percent, to NT$171.50. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips, slipped NT$4.20, or 7 percent, to NT$55.80. Taiwan Semiconductor makes about three quarters of its sales to US buyers. Acer Inc, the biggest Taiwanese maker of personal computers, lost NT$4.20, or 7 percent, to NT$56.
US payrolls rose by 18,000 last month, the fewest new jobs since 2003, after economists had forecast a rise of 70,000. The unemployment rate jumped to a two-year high of 5 percent, compared with an estimate of 4.8 percent. The US is Taiwan's biggest export market after China.
Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, head of the group that dates economic cycles in the US, said on Saturday the odds of a recession are more than 50 percent as a result of the jobs report.
Catcher dropped NT$11, or 6.8 percent, to NT$150.50, its lowest in almost two years. Investors should sell Catcher shares because its revenue of NT$1.2 billion (US$37 million) last month was less than the market's expectations of NT$1.7 billion, Tony Tseng (
Tseng downgraded shares of Catcher, which reported December sales on Friday, from "buy," citing disappointing sales growth. He cut his 2007 earnings estimates for Catcher by 6 percent to NT$6.98 billion, and for 2008 by 32 percent to NT$6.78 billion.
Credit Suisse Group cut its recommendation for the stock to "underperform" from "neutral," and reduced its 12-month price target to NT$160 from NT$262. Credit Suisse analyst Pauline Chen cited falling gross margins, rising labor costs, slower growth in Catcher's main business of magnesium casings and the low December sales as reasons for the downgrade.
Asustek Computer Inc (
The US International Trade Commission said it will investigate claims by International Business Machines Corp that the Taiwan-based computer maker violated three patents for computers, motherboards and graphics cards.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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