Where’s the bottom? Bruised investors on Wall Street keep asking the question after another brutal week of losses. But a growing sense of fear and gloom make it risky to bet that the worst is over for the shrinking US economy and stock market.
The relentless bear market savaged the Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue-chips, which fell 6.17 percent on the week to 6,626.94, just above a 12-year low.
The broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 sank to its level since 1996 over the past week, and lost 7.03 percent for the week to 683.38.
The technology-heavy NASDAQ composite fell 6.1 percent over the week to 1,293.85.
The Dow and S&P have already plunged 24 percent so far this year and the NASDAQ nearly 18 percent.
The horrific bear market has been reinforced by fears of an ever-deepening worldwide slump that has hit small and large firms alike, forcing massive job cuts and denting consumer spending as part of a downward economic spiral.
Some say the market, down over 50 percent from 2007 highs, has priced in a deep recession but may have to fall further if the slump becomes a depression — which could erase stock values by 90 percent if it follows the pattern of the 1930s.
“Investors should not rush in,” said Richard Berner, economist at Morgan Stanley. “Now that equities stand at 14-year lows and 55 percent below their October 2007 highs, they do reflect a lot of bad news — but maybe not quite enough. The further slide in production that we expect suggests that the near-term risks for earnings point down, and a rapid turnaround seems unlikely.”
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell back to 2.828 percent from 3.041 percent a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond eased to 3.503 percent from 3.722 percent.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
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