Fresh fears over headwinds facing the global economy on Friday saw Asian stocks plunge into the red in light holiday trading after US markets were closed for Thanksgiving.
Chinese shares led the downward charge as Shanghai slumped by more than 2 percent, with the tech sector hit hard by a Wall Street Journal report saying that Washington is urging its allies to avoid using equipment from Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Worsening tensions between the US and China have shattered confidence on global trading floors and investors were skeptical of new claims by US President Donald Trump that he was hopeful of resolving the bitter trade dispute between the two countries.
“China wants to make a deal. If we can make a deal, we will,” Trump said, ahead of crunch talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the G20 in Argentina next week.
Beijing on Friday also signaled its willingness to make progress, with Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (王受文) telling a media briefing that he hoped the two economic heavyweights could “finally find a solution to solve the problem.”
However, the fractious APEC summit — which for the first time ever failed to issue a joint statement after US-China trade tensions boiled over — earlier this month set an ominous tone for the high-stakes summit in Buenos Aires.
The world’s top two economies have been locked in a trade war since the summer, with the US imposing punitive tariffs on an annual US$250 billion of Chinese goods.
In retaliation, China has imposed tariffs on US$110 billion of US goods.
Washington has threatened to toughen measures even further if the issue is not resolved before January.
“Investors are waiting for either a conclusion to the trade war or for Xi to present some meaningful stimulus,” K2 Asset Management head of global equities James Soutter said in Melbourne. “Chinese companies are actually more sanguine than investors and in many cases still seeing growth, although not at the levels of last year.”
Speculation is growing that the People’s Bank of China will again cut the level of cash that banks must hold in reserve, a fresh bid to lower financing costs and blunt the economic effects of the trade dispute with the US.
“The central bank is worried about external shocks in the wake of the cantankerous APEC summit, which highlighted a considerable political divide,” Oanda Corp head of Asia-Pacific trade Stephen Innes said. “But moves are unlikely to be substantial given the local markets are effectively in holiday mode.”
The Shanghai Composite on Friday lost 65.95 points, or 2.5 percent, to close at 2,579.48, plunging 3.7 percent from 2,679.11 on Nov. 16.
With markets in Japan and India closed for holidays, Taipei, Hong Kong and Seoul all chalked up losses, as Asian stocks headed for a third week in the red.
The TAIEX on Friday edged down 47.41 points, or 0.5 percent, to 9,667.30, shedding 1.3 percent from a close of 9,797.09 a week earlier.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng on Friday slid 91.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 25,927.68, dropping 1.7 percent from 26,372.00 on Nov. 16.
South Korea’s KOSPI on Friday fell 12.47 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,057.48, a 2 percent fall from 2,100.56 a week earlier.
Sydney, which saw gains of 0.4 percent, was a rare bright spot.
Additional reporting by staff writer
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
RSS