Headlines

PRE-MARKET TAIWANESE AND SINGAPOREAN STOCK NEWS: Zhen Ding sees no near-term relief in PCB supply constraints; Singapore banks take zero-tolerance stance on haze-linked clients

Newsquawk Staff ·

US TECH SECTOR

  • Cash session: Tech lagged a broadly firmer US session, with the NDX -0.13% at 29,490 while the S&P 500, Dow and Russell 2000 gained. Communications underperformed on Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta (META) weakness, while Tech saw marginal losses as continued concerns over AI-exposed debt weighed on AI names.
  • AI/semis newsflow: Micron (MU) plans to invest up to USD 3bln to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain; TD Cowen checks indicated Oracle (ORCL) is leasing again, with NVIDIA (NVDA) appearing to provide credit support; Amazon (AMZN) is buying billions in NVIDIA AI systems it cannot yet turn on (Business Insider). Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus showed H1 revenue of USD 16.3bln and an USD 80.7bln net loss, driven largely by USD 72bln of accounting charges tied to convertible notes (WSJ).
  • Super Micro Computer (SMCI): Guided Q1 FY27 net sales of USD 18.5-19.5bln (exp. 14.99bln; prev. guide 14.5-15.5bln), with adj. gross margin of 12-12.5%, on increased demand for AI platforms. SMCI +12% after-hours, while NQ futures rose c. 50 points on the guidance.
  • SpaceX (SPCX): Q3 EPS 0.35 (exp. 0.17) and revenue USD 14.6bln (exp. 12.98bln), with SI revenue of USD 7.56bln (prev. 813mln Y/Y). On the call, CEO Musk guided ARR of USD 500bln-1tln by end-2027 and an incremental 13GW of compute by end-2027. Shares rose to +4.5% during the call, with NQ futures also grinding higher as traders cited Musk's forecasts and power names rose on the compute guidance. Musk said a SpaceX-Tesla (TSLA) merger would be a good idea but is far from certain; SPCX +8% and TSLA c+1%.5 after-hours.
  • Netflix (NFLX): Beat on Q3 EPS and revenue but guided Q4 EPS (0.67 vs exp. 0.73) and revenue below expectations; shares -5.5% after-hours.

TAIWAN

Starlux Airlines (2646 TT) - Co. is boosting flights to global technology hubs, incl. Prague, Phoenix and Ontario, and studying new US destinations such as Dallas, Chicago, New York and Washington DC, to meet demand from Taiwan's AI and semiconductor supply chains. (Focus Taiwan)

Zhen Ding Technology (4958 TT) - Chairman said Co. expects no near-term relief in the supply of PCBs, related components and materials, with demand driven by CSPs' AI infrastructure investment, and said the chances of major CSPs slowing AI server expansion due to higher funding costs are slim. Co. expects to operate 59 factories by 2030, more than double the current 28. (Taipei Times)

Other News

  • Micron (MU) - The union representing Micron's Taoyuan workers will strike on Thursday in solidarity with Taichung workers in a profit-sharing dispute, coinciding with a mediation meeting. (Focus Taiwan/Taipei Times)

SINGAPORE

DBS Group (D05 SP) / OCBC (O39 SP) / UOB (U11 SP) - Singapore banks could reduce funding or exit relationships with clients found to have breached sustainability requirements, under a "zero-tolerance" approach to open burning and deforestation amid scrutiny over the regional haze. (Business Times)

First Resources (EB5 SP) - Pledged cooperation with authorities over the haze, while SGX RegCo said it was engaging secondary-listed TSH Resources, which had yet to respond publicly to SGX queries over fires in Indonesia. (Straits Times)

HC Surgical Specialists (1B1 SP) - Announced the acquisition of the remaining 65% of Total Orthopaedics. (SGX filing)

Hong Leong Asia (H22 SP) - Announced that Yuchai and Guangxi Zhenye are forming a new joint venture. (SGX filing)

Wee Hur Holdings (E3B SP) - Secured an unconditional option to acquire a site in Sydney for a proposed 471-bed student accommodation development; completion expected in H2 2027. (Business Times)

What it means

This is a regional pre-market wrap rather than a single event, and such roundups tend to matter less for any one item than for the thread connecting them. Here that thread is AI infrastructure: the PCB supply commentary from a major Taiwanese substrate maker, a carrier adding routes to serve semiconductor supply chains, and US hyperscaler and server guidance all point the same direction. On the PCB constraint itself, episodes where a supplier publicly flags no near-term relief have historically been read two ways: as confirmation of demand durability for the upstream chain, and as a margin question for assemblers caught between tight components and fixed-price contracts, and the chairman's parallel claim that CSPs are unlikely to slow expansion on funding costs is the part worth treating as an assertion rather than a fact. The Micron strike item is the kind of localised labour dispute that has tended to resolve in mediation without lasting supply effect, though it lands at a sensitive moment for memory sentiment. The Singapore banks' zero-tolerance stance on haze-linked clients follows an established regional pattern in which recurring burn seasons periodically force lenders to formalise deforestation exclusions, with the transmission channel running through credit access for plantation names rather than through the banks' own books. The calendar items to note are the mediation outcome, any SGX RegCo escalation against non-responders, and whether further upstream suppliers echo the no-relief framing, since corroboration across the chain is what has historically turned a single-vendor comment into a repricing of the supply thesis.

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