PRE-MARKET TAIWAN AND SINGAPORE STOCKS NEWS: TSMC (2330 TT) August revenue rose 53.3% Y/Y to a record TWD 514.8bln

Acer (2353 TT) - Co. is cautiously maintaining inventories of key components, including solid-state drives, DRAM chips, CPUs, panels and batteries, to cushion the impact of rising prices. (Taipei Times)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (2330 TT) - Co. reported August revenue rose 53.3% Y/Y and 10.1% M/M to a record TWD 514.806bln, driven by robust AI-related demand and new smartphone launches. (Focus Taiwan)

Tech – Nasdaq 100 retreated as stocks were pressured alongside higher yields and a surge in oil prices, while futures are range-bound overnight and attempt to nurse some losses.

Singapore Exchange (SGX SP) - Co. reported August securities daily average value rose 35% Y/Y to SGD 2.2bln, while total securities market turnover rose 29% Y/Y to SGD 43.3bln, supported by robust retail interest in REITs and small- to mid-cap stocks alongside a record rally in the Straits Times Index. (Business Times)

TSMC's monthly revenue prints function as the closest thing to a real-time read on the AI capex cycle, and record readings of this kind have historically been taken as confirmation that foundry utilisation at the leading-edge nodes remains the binding constraint rather than demand. The monthly cadence matters: it sits ahead of the formal quarterly report and tends to pre-commit the market's view, so the quarterly itself usually only surprises on margin and guidance rather than top line. The split the tape will draw is between AI accelerator demand, which is structural and capacity-limited, and smartphone launches, which are seasonal; prints carried by the former have tended to re-rate the whole foundry and advanced-packaging peer set, while handset-driven months fade faster. Acer's inventory commentary is the other side of the same coin: component buyers building buffer stock ahead of price rises is a pattern seen in past memory upcycles and typically reinforces the pricing-power read for DRAM and adjacent suppliers. The SGX turnover figures fit the established pattern of exchange operators monetising retail-heavy rallies in the local benchmark, a flow that is cyclical rather than structural. Worth noting is the overnight backdrop of higher yields and firmer oil, which has historically capped how far a strong semi print can carry the broader tape when the rates channel is pushing the other way.