Asian Stocks Diverge as Taiwan Shares Swing Sharply Before Turning Higher
US inflation data came in above expectations and Treasury yields climbed, dragging US stocks lower across the board on November 10, while Asian stocks swung in early trading on the 11th. As of 9:05 AM, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.4%, while South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.48%. Taiwan shares opened at 43135.76 points, up 423.84 points, surging to an early high of 43385.84 points, up 673.92 points, before buying momentum faded and the index quickly fell to 42708.05 points, briefly turning negative, with an intraday high-low swing of nearly 678 points, then recovering to 42789.93 points, up 78.01 points or 0.18%, amid fierce bull-bear jockeying.
The New Taiwan dollar extended its decline in early trading, as of 9:27 AM, the US dollar rose to NT$32.96, down 0.29%, approaching the 33 mark. The Nikkei 225 surged 2.87% the previous day, retaking 60000 points, and extended gains in early trading today to 60701.2 points intraday; South Korea's KOSPI rebounded sharply by 4.39% the previous day, and faced profit-taking pressure this morning to pull back to 5214.07 points.
US October CPI Tops Expectations, Rate-Hike Concerns Heat Up
US October consumer price index rose 0.4% month-on-month, below September's 0.6% but still above the market forecast of 0.3%; core CPI rose 0.3% month-on-month, above the expected 0.2%, holding the same pace for 3 consecutive months. Among components, food prices rose 0.5% month-on-month and housing costs rose 0.3%, with housing contributing more than 30% of the monthly CPI increase. Due to missing data from the US government shutdown, the overall and core CPI year-on-year rates were not released.
Sticky inflation has led markets to reassess the Federal Reserve's December rate policy, with rate-hike concerns heating up over whether it will raise rates by 25 basis points or even 50 basis points, and subsequent official remarks and inflation data will be key indicators to watch. The US 2-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.731%, and the 10-year rose to 4.988%, approaching the 5% mark. The three major US stock indexes closed lower together, with the Dow down 0.3%, the S&P 500 down 0.38%, and the Nasdaq down 0.74%, as technology stocks came under pressure. Signs of easing in the Middle East drove international oil prices lower, helping ease energy inflation pressure, but sticky inflation still pressured tech stock valuations and capital flows.
Anthropic Seeks $90.4 Billion Fundraise With TSMC Participating
AI startup Anthropic is advancing its initial public offering plan, proposing to issue 825 million shares at $70 to $78 per share, with the IPO raising up to $64.4 billion, plus $26 billion raised from tech giants through a private placement, totaling up to $90.4 billion, potentially surpassing SpaceX's previous $86.2 billion fundraising record. At the upper end of the offering price, the fully diluted valuation could reach $1.4 trillion.
The 7 technology companies participating in the private placement include Google, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Microsoft and TSMC, with Google and Nvidia each committing $10 billion, AMD investing $2.5 billion, Broadcom, Micron and Microsoft each investing $1 billion, and TSMC planning to invest $500 million through its TSMC Partners unit. TSMC's board approved the investment on the 10th, and approved up to $500 million to subscribe for OpenAI preferred shares, bringing total investment in the two major AI companies to up to $1 billion, showing its expansion from AI chip supplier to AI application-side deployment.