US economic worries are growing, but the stock market is holding firm.
The US is likely barreling toward a recession that could be worse than any in the past few decades, with a housing market in a meltdown and consumers on the ropes. Has Wall Street lost its head?
Many analysts say the stock market is fulfilling its role as a forward-looking barometer and that investors are looking past the current economic turmoil to a recovery later this year or next year. Others say such an outlook may be too optimistic.
In the coming week, a key moment for Wall Street will be the policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve, widely expected to make a small rate cut but signal a possible pause to assess the impact of a series of cuts and other stimulus for the US economy.
In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue chips edged up 0.33 percent to 12,891.86 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index added 0.54 percent to 1,397.84.
The technology-heavy NASDAQ composite climbed 0.83 percent to 2,422.93.
Bonds fell in the past week on a shift into equities. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 3.866 percent from 3.743 percent a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.589 percent against 4.517 percent.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
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