PRE-MARKET TAIWAN AND SINGAPORE STOCKS NEWS: TSMC (2330 TT) increased its Q2 employee bonuses by more than 50% Y/Y to TWD 36bln after posting record earnings for the period

Tech

Nasdaq 100 declined on Friday as stocks were pressured alongside higher yields following Fed Chair Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech, while futures are mildly lower to start the week.

Silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO), technologies viewed as critical to meeting surging bandwidth demand from AI infrastructure, will be among the main themes at the Semicon Taiwan trade show opening on Wednesday. (Taipei Times)

TSMC (2330 TT) - Co. increased its Q2 employee bonuses by more than 50% Y/Y to TWD 36bln after posting record earnings for the period. (Taipei Times)

Centurion Corporation (CENT SP) - Co. won an SGD 221.7mln bid to develop a 5,000-bed purpose-built worker accommodation facility at Lok Yang Way through a joint venture in which it will hold a 90% stake. (Business Times)

ComfortDelGro (CD SP) - Co. and RATP Dev will operate and maintain all four lines of the Copenhagen metro system from September 2027 under a DKK 17bln, 12-year contract, with an option for a three-year extension. (Business Times)

ESR-REIT (EREIT SP) - Co.'s manager CEO and executive director Adrian Chui will step down, with a search for his replacement underway. (Business Times)

Frasers Property (FPL SP) - Co. invited holders of SGD 500mln of notes due February 2027 to tender some or all of their holdings for cash or new notes. (Business Times)

Fu Yu Corporation (FUYU SP) - Co. applied to SGX to transfer its listing from the Mainboard to Catalist after its market capitalisation declined over the past three financial years. (Business Times)

Bonus disclosures of this kind at TSMC are a downstream confirmation of the profit cycle rather than new information: the company's compensation pool is contractually linked to earnings, so a sharply higher payout after a record quarter restates what the income statement already showed. Where such items have historically mattered is at the margin, as a read on how much of the AI-driven upcycle is flowing through to the cost base and, over time, to wage inflation in the Hsinchu supply chain rather than to shareholders. The heavier content in the wrap sits elsewhere: silicon photonics and copackaged optics headlining Semicon Taiwan continues the pattern of packaging and interconnect, not wafer starts, being the constraint theme in AI buildout, and commentary around the show has previously moved the local OSAT and substrate names more than the foundry itself. On the Singapore side, the items are idiosyncratic: a tender offer on Frasers Property notes is a routine liability-management exercise typical of investment-grade Asian property credits managing near-term maturities, and the Fu Yu board transfer is a mechanical small-cap event. The Warsh overhang on US yields frames the session's tone for the region's tech complex, which has tended to trade as a beta extension of the Nasdaq on such mornings.