10/02/2026

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Japan stocks soar to record high on Takaichi win

promoting its Starlink Wi-Fi service. Even as Musk reorients SpaceX, he is also pushing his publicly traded company, Tesla, in a new direction. After virtually building the global electric vehicles market, Tesla is now planning to spend US$20 billion this year as part of an effort to pivot to autonomous driving and robots. To speed up the shift, Musk said last month Tesla is ending production of two car models at its California factory to make room for manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robots. – Reuters Taiwan says ‘impossible’ to move 40% chip capacity to US TAIPEI: Taiwan’s top tariffs negotiator said it would be “impossible” to shift 40% of its semiconductor production capacity to the United States as she rejected claims that the island’s chip industry would relocate. Taiwan is a powerhouse in producing chips – a critical component in the global economy – but the White House wants more of the technology made in America. Washington agreed in a deal last month to lower tariffs on the island’s goods to 15% from 20%, while Taiwan will increase its investment in the US. US Commerce Secretary official Howard Lutnick said last month that Washington wanted to shift up to 40% of Taiwan’s chip supply chain and production to the US, warning tariffs could rise sharply if that did not happen. That came after he told US media in September that Taiwan’s chip production should be split “50-50” with Washington. But in an interview broadcast on Sunday by Taiwanese television channel CTS, lead negotiator and Vice-Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to US officials that Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem would not be relocated. With regards to “40% or 50% of production capacity (being) moved to the United States... I have made it very clear to the US side that this is impossible,” Cheng said. She added that Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem was like an “iceberg”, the foundation beneath the water is “enormous”, adding that “an industrial ecosystem built up over decades cannot be relocated”. She said “it will only continue to grow larger”. – AFP

TOKYO: Japanese stocks surged to a record high yesterday following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s election win, while healthy gains across the rest of Asia and Europe tracked a rally on Wall Street. After last week’s broad-based volatility, investors appeared to be enjoying a return to calm, with the news out of Tokyo providing hope for political stability in the world’s number-four economy. Takaichi’s resounding victory saw her ruling Liberal Democratic Party take around a two-thirds majority of the lower house, paving the way for increased fiscal stimulus and massive tax cuts. “We will prioritise the sustainability of fiscal policy. We will ensure necessary investments. Public and private sectors must invest. We will build a strong and resilient economy,” she said Sunday as the results rolled in. Analyst Kyle Rodda of Capital.com said the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s victory had handed Takaichi “the mandate she was looking for for her big-spending agenda”. Equities are “poised to benefit from higher fiscal spending but interest rates that remain accommodative and negative in real terms”, he said. “A decisive victory is typically a near-term positive for markets because it reduces political uncertainty and can add a ‘certainty premium’ – investors can price policy o Bangkok up 3% after Anutin’s stunning election victory

direction with more confidence, rather than worrying about fragile coalitions and legislative gridlock,” said Charu Chanana at Saxo Markets. But she said the medium-term was a little more nuanced. “A landslide can embolden a bigger fiscal and security agenda – more spending ambitions, more active defence posture, and potentially more geopolitical friction. “But the same landslide can also create room for pragmatism: with her position secured, Takaichi has less need to campaign from the edges and more incentive to protect approval by moderating the most market-sensitive policies.” Financial markets may also be nervous about Japan’s public finances and its gargantuan debt pile if Takaichi decides to cut taxes and boost spending. But for now investors are upbeat, pushing the benchmark Nikkei 225 index more than 5% higher at one point to break 57,000 points for the first time, before paring the gains to end 3.9% higher. The yen also advanced. “From a market perspective, the outcome is strongly supportive for Japanese equities... as Ms. Takaichi now has broad flexibility to pursue her pro-growth economic agenda and advance structural reforms,” wrote David Chao at Invesco. “Overall, the combination of political stability, policy continuity, and reform optionality is likely to be viewed positively by markets, reinforcing the constructive outlook I continue to have for Japanese risk assets.” Elsewhere, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Mumbai, Jakarta and Taipei all enjoyed strong buying. Seoul climbed more than 4%,

A worker cleans up in front an electronic quotation board displaying numbers of the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in the Japanese capital yesterday. – AFPPIC

which has been hit by worries over the vast sums being invested in AI and when – and if – they will see returns. Precious metals edged up as they also enjoyed a return to stability after last week’s ructions. Gold was sitting just above US$5,000 and silver was at US$82, having seen wild swings from record highs of US$5,595 and US$121 to lows of US$4,402 and US$64. Oil prices edged down one percent on easing geopolitical concerns after Iran and the United States held nuclear talks in Oman, with Tehran calling the meeting “a step forward”. Bitcoin fetched around US$70,500, having bounced back from a plunge to just above US$60,000 during last week’s ructions. – AFP

artificial intelligence company he also leads, xAI, in a deal that values the rocket and satellite company at US$1 trillion and the artificial intelligence outfit at US$250 billion. Proponents of the move view it as a way for SpaceX to bolster its plans for space-based data centres, which Musk sees as more energy efficient than terrestrial facilities as the demand for compute power soars with AI development. SpaceX is hoping a public offering later this year could raise as much as US$50 billion, which could make it helped by a 6% jump in market heavyweight Samsung after a report said it would start mass production of its next-generation HBM4 memory chips. Bangkok added more than 3% after a stunning election victory for caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s conservative Bhumjaithai Party that boosted hopes for political stability. London, Paris and Frankfurt opened in positive territory. The gains came after all three indexes on Wall Street ended last week on a positive note, with the Dow topping 50,000 points for the first time as traders focused on the prospects for the US economy and possible interest rate cuts. However, there remains a lot of uncertainty over the tech sector,

SpaceX prioritises lunar ‘self-growing city’ over Mars project: Musk SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk said on Sunday that SpaceX has shifted its focus to building a “self-growing city” on the moon, which could be achieved in less than 10 years. it would prioritise going to the moon and attempt a trip to Mars at a later time, targeting March 2027 for an uncrewed lunar landing. the largest public offering in history. Musk said yesterday in response to a user on X that Nasa will constitute less than 5% of SpaceX’s revenue this year.

As recently as last year, Musk said that he aimed to send an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2026. The US faces intense competition from China in the race to return humans to the moon this decade. Humans have not visited the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Less than a week ago, Musk announced that SpaceX acquired the

SpaceX is a core contractor in Nasa’s Artemis moon programme with a US$4 billion contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface using Starship. “Vast majority of SpaceX revenue is the commercial Starlink system,” Musk added. Earlier on Sunday, Musk shared the company’s first Super Bowl ad,

SpaceX still intends to start on Musk’s long-held ambition of a city on Mars within five to seven years, he wrote on his X social media platform, “but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilisation and the Moon is faster”. Musk’s comments echo a Wall Street Journal report on Friday, stating that SpaceX has told investors

China chip firm Montage Technology surges over 50% in Hong Kong debut HONG KONG: China’s Montage Technology jumped more than 50% in its Hong Kong trading debut yesterday after the world’s biggest memory interconnect chip supplier raised HK$7.04 billion (RM3.5 billion) in a share sale to mainly fund research. Montage makes data centre memory interface chips that help artificial intelligence computer networks move data faster between processors and memory. The shares opened at HK$168 compared to their offer price of HK$106.89, hit a high of HK$171 before trimming gains to trade at around HK$163. The stock was the third most actively traded stock by turnover early yesterday. Shanghai-listed Montage offered 65.9 million shares in Hong Kong at a maximum offer price of HK$106.89 each. Besides R&D, the proceeds will be used to fund commercialisation, strategic investments or acquisitions and working capital, according to its prospectus. The retail portion of the offering was more than 700 times oversubscribed and the international tranche more than 37 times, according to the company’s allotment results announcement on Friday. The offering garnered 17

cornerstone investors who committed US$450 million, including JPMorgan Asset Management, UBS Asset Management and Yunfeng Capital. Founded in 2004, Montage is the biggest memory interconnect chip supplier globally, with a 36.8% market share by revenue in 2024, according to its prospectus. – Reuters