Shares stage technical rebound
The TAIEX staged a mild technical rebound yesterday from the heavy losses seen in the previous session, but turnover remained at a low level, indicating many investors preferred to stay on the sidelines amid the global financial turmoil, dealers said.
Sentiment was cautious, although Wall Street recovered overnight, snapping a three-day losing streak after the latest data on jobless benefit claims in the US was better than expected, they said.
In such a quiet session, large cap stocks lacked momentum to lead the broader market to go even higher, they added.
The TAIEX closed up 20.50 points, or 0.30 percent, at 6,785.09, after moving between 6,757.33 and 6,810.08 on turnover of NT$52.83 billion (US$1.74 billion).
Taiwan buys more US debt
Taiwan increased its holdings of US Treasury securities by US$800 million to more than US$150 billion in October, making the nation the seventh-largest foreign creditor of the US, according to the latest report released by the US Department of the Treasury.
China, the biggest foreign buyer of US debt, decreased its holdings by US$14.2 billion to US$1.13 trillion.
Japan, the second-largest foreign holder of US debt, raised its holdings by US$22.2 billion to a record high of US$979 billion in October.
The UK, the third-largest buyer, reduced its holdings by US$13.2 billion to US$408.4 billion.
Taking fourth place, OPEC held US$226.2 billion of US debt in October, down by US$3.7 billion from the previous month.
Brazil, the fifth-largest creditor, held US$209.1 billion in October, an increase of US$2.9 billion from September.
Asustek to replace faulty tablets
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) said yesterday that some models of its latest tablet computer, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, had unstable Wi-Fi reception and users who experience the technical glitch could approach its service centers for a replacement from Monday.
Asustek released its Transformer Prime in Taiwan earlier this month and the first batch of 300 units were sold out, according to the company.
The firm said it would start shipping the Transformer Prime in bulk volumes from Monday and that new models would not have the glitch.
Rambus to collaborate with ITRI
Rambus Inc, a technology licensing company based in California, announced on Wednesday that it would collaborate the with Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) on the development of 3D packaging technologies.
In a press statement, Rambus said the partnership with the institute would be devoted to the development of system integration using silicon interposer technology.
It also announced it would join the Advanced Stacked-System Technology and Application Consortium, a multinational research association initiated by ITRI.
The institute announced a separate collaboration with Intel Corp earlier this month on the development of memory technologies that make use of 3D integrated circuit technology and are expected to provide better performance with less power consumption.
Local traders dump US dollar
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday to close up NT$0.001 at NT$30.369.
The selling of the US dollar on the local foreign exchange market reflected the greenback’s weakness against other currencies in the region, after the euro returned to the US$1.30 mark overnight on improving sentiment over the European debt situation, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$621 million during the trading session.
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