Taiwan stocks surged in early trading on Sept. 22, with the benchmark index rising more than 880 points and touching 48,601.53, setting a fresh intraday record. The move followed a broad rally in U.S. equities, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index all closed higher on Sept. 21. Market sentiment was also helped by comments from Donald Trump, who said he would not rule out meeting Iran’s president during the United Nations General Assembly, a development that fed expectations of easing tensions in the Middle East and pushed oil prices lower. In Taiwan, heavyweight names including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), MediaTek, Delta Electronics, Hon Hai Precision Industry, and ASE Technology Holding all advanced, while electronics components, optoelectronics, semiconductors, and cable-related shares also moved higher. TSMC ADR, ASE ADR, and UMC ADR all gained in U.S. trading, and Taiwan index futures in the night session rose 728 points to 48,781.

U.S. stocks closed lower as three pressures hit risk assets at once: the 10-year Treasury yield moved above 5%, oil prices climbed on supply disruption concerns, and the market reassessed the pace of AI spending after prominent industry figures called for slower development of frontier models. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29%, the Nasdaq dropped 0.56%, and the S&P 500 lost 0.48%, while the VIX rose to 17.10. The Treasury move sat at the center of the session. The 10-year yield reached about 5.014%, its first break above 5% since 2023, as investors weighed stronger inflation data, rising energy prices, and supply pressure tied to $40 trillion in federal debt. Markets also increased pricing for a 25-basis-point Federal Reserve rate hike this week to 93.5%, according to the report. In equities, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index sank nearly 6%, its biggest one-day drop since early July, after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in frontier AI model development, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk backing the idea. Hardware names sold off, while software and cybersecurity shares outperformed. The report also flagged the U.S. Senate’s procedural vote on the CLARITY Act as a key upcoming event for the crypto regulatory framework.

The U.S. Treasury jolted markets by doubling liquidity buybacks for 10- to 30-year Treasurys from a maximum of $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, a move that helped pull long-dated yields lower after a sharp bond selloff. The 30-year yield fell by more than 9 basis points on the day, while the 10-year yield slipped back toward 4.64%. The dollar index dropped 0.86% to 98.69, spot gold surged through $4,500 an ounce, and Bitcoin briefly climbed to $70,064, its highest level since June 2, according to OKX data. At the same time, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting struck a hawkish tone. Rates were left unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, but three voters — Logan, Hammack and Kashkari — dissented in favor of an immediate 25-basis-point hike. The minutes also showed officials discussing AI-driven inflation pressure in chips, steel, power and data-center materials, while warning that aggressive borrowing and overly optimistic profit assumptions could leave AI valuations vulnerable. Equity leadership shifted sharply. A successful Phase 3 personalized mRNA cancer vaccine trial from Moderna and Merck ignited a rally in drugmakers and biotech, while semiconductor, storage and optical-networking names tied to AI momentum selling continued to weaken. Crypto-linked stocks also jumped, helped by stronger Bitcoin prices and comments tied to Hyperliquid’s possible compliant U.S. entry.

ABMedia said the latest market selloff reflects more than a routine valuation reset. The report argues that investors are dealing with two pressures at once: inflation risk tied to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a change in how the Federal Reserve communicates under new Chair Warsh. Semiconductor shares led the decline, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 4.98% overnight and TSMC ADR falling 4.07%, while Taiwan’s stock benchmark ended at 44,719.35, down 1.30% after touching 44,308.71 intraday. The article said the problem is not simply that rates are high, oil is rising, or growth is cooling. Its central point is that markets are still trading as if the Fed will step in early and clearly signal its next move, even though Warsh has explicitly rejected forward guidance and has floated ending quarterly economic projections and the dot plot. At the same time, 10-year Treasury yields have returned to 4.71%, the Fed kept rates at 3.50% to 3.75% on July 29, and three officials favored a 25-basis-point hike. ABMedia described the move as a correction rather than a crash and said investors should watch Treasury yields, progress in Hormuz negotiations, and whether markets can identify the Fed’s new reaction function.

U.S. stocks fell for a third straight session Tuesday as higher long-term bond yields put fresh pressure on richly valued technology names. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.33%, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, while the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly touched 5.338%, its highest level since 2007. The move was part of a wider global bond sell-off that also pushed long-dated yields higher in France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Markets are increasingly focused on the growing debt burden tied to artificial intelligence expansion. According to figures cited in the report, AI-related bond issuance has reached $489 billion so far this year, well above an earlier full-year 2025 estimate of roughly $322 billion, while The Wall Street Journal reported that nine major technology companies have about $3 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI commitments. That backdrop hit semiconductors, memory, optical communications and AI cloud-service providers especially hard. Investors are also weighing fiscal deficits, oil-driven inflation risks tied to the Iran situation, and a heavy event calendar that includes U.S. tariffs on some Canadian products, a 20-year Treasury auction, Federal Reserve minutes and China’s one-year LPR decision.

U.S. equities opened lower on Aug. 18, with AI and semiconductor names leading the decline. Micron briefly fell nearly 7%, TSMC ADR lost about 4%, and NVIDIA, Broadcom and Meta also weakened. The move followed rising oil prices, higher Treasury yields and renewed Middle East tensions, not a single earnings report or an abrupt collapse in AI demand. Reuters reported that U.S.-Iran talks stalled and Brent crude climbed back near $90 a barrel. That in turn revived inflation concerns and pushed long-dated Treasury yields higher, with the 30-year yield touching about 5.29%, the highest since 2007, while the 10-year yield held around 4.71%. Energy stocks rose instead, with XLE up more than 1% intraday. Still, the article says there is not enough evidence that AI infrastructure demand has turned. U.S. industrial output for July rose 0.2%, semiconductor production increased 2.4%, and Microsoft and Amazon’s latest results still point to strong cloud demand. Gold and silver did not rally either, suggesting investors were focused more on yields and the dollar than on classic safe-haven flows. The piece highlights three numbers to watch next: Brent above $90, the U.S. 10-year yield, and AI companies’ revenue, orders and free cash flow.

A new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows what Leopold Aschenbrenner’s fund, Situational Awareness LP, held before the July blowup tied to AI-related stocks and leverage pressure. The firm filed a 13F-HR on Aug. 14, 2026, disclosing a public-equity snapshot that carried a reported value of about $20.24 billion. The portfolio was sharply concentrated: roughly $5.674 billion in Sandisk, or about 28.0% of the book, and about $5.574 billion in Micron, or 27.5%. Together, those two memory names accounted for more than $11.2 billion, or around 55.5% of reported holdings. Beyond storage, the filing listed large positions in Bloom Energy, TSMC ADR, Nebius, CoreWeave, and Core Scientific, along with exposure to Applied Digital, IREN, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark. The filing offers a view into a portfolio built around the AI infrastructure chain, spanning memory, foundry capacity, cloud compute, power, data centers, and mining infrastructure. The document also has limits: 13F reports only cover U.S.-listed securities and some options as of June 30, and do not show intraday trading, the full short book, financing structure, or sales made after that date.

Wall Street rebounded sharply after the prior session’s sell-off, with Microsoft’s earnings report becoming the session’s main catalyst. The company’s Azure cloud business grew 43% at constant currency, ahead of expectations, while lower-than-expected capital spending and a commitment to positive cash flow in fiscal 2027 helped calm concerns that AI investment was becoming too costly. Microsoft shares surged 15.51%, adding about $450 billion in market value in a single day. The move helped drive the Dow up 1.19%, the S&P 500 up 1.66%, the Nasdaq up 2.78%, and the Nasdaq 100 up 3.36%, while the VIX fell 17.33% to 17.08. Semiconductors and memory names led the rally, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rising 8.19% and the Roundhill Memory ETF climbing nearly 17%. At the same time, traders continued to monitor Middle East developments, a possible OPEC+ output increase of 188,000 barrels per day in September, and sharp currency moves in Japan and South Korea. Market participants are also watching several near-term events, including the Trump administration’s AI regulatory framework deadline on Aug. 1, South Korea’s July export data, and the Aug. 2 OPEC+ meeting.