Taiwan's benchmark stock index, the Taiex, plunged nearly 10% on Monday, the worst single-day drop in its history. This is the market's first reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump's 32% tariff on exports, which came just before a long weekend.
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00:00U.S. President Donald Trump says market volatility is a necessary medicine as Asian stocks plunge
00:06after his tariff announcement last week.
00:09So far, those have hit this region the hardest.
00:11Our reporter Tiffany Wong is at the Taiwan Stock Exchange where the market just closed.
00:15Tiffany, what's the damage look like there?
00:22Taiwan is one of the hardest hit markets in Asia today.
00:26The benchmark index, the TAIX, closing under 20,000 points after a 10 percent drop early
00:32this morning.
00:33That's the biggest single-day drop in the stock market's history.
00:37This is the first market response we've seen to that 32 percent tariff imposed by U.S.
00:42President Donald Trump on exports from Taiwan.
00:46He announced that right before a long four-day weekend in Taiwan.
00:50Traders and tech giants like TSMC and Foxconn also took a plunge of about 10 percent this
00:56morning, also triggering trading restrictions on their stocks.
01:00And about 1,000 other stocks on this exchange also triggered those trading curbs.
01:06Now, Taiwan's government did anticipate these drops coming, and they did try to implement
01:11some measures like massive limits on short-selling, which is when investors sell off their shares
01:17in anticipation that the price will drop.
01:20But Taiwan's financial regulator emphasized that these are temporary measures that should
01:24only last the week.
01:26But just this morning, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation called for an emergency meeting
01:30before the market opened to try and reassure investors that the market will stabilize.
01:50So we can see that the regulators are trying to reassure investors that the market will
02:13stabilize, but based on the trading today, it looks like investors are still jittery
02:18about these tariffs.
02:21And Tiffany, how are other Asian markets doing?
02:23I mean, the entire region has been hit hard by these tariffs.
02:28Well, Asia has been hit the hardest by these tariffs from Trump, and it's a bloodbath in
02:37the markets today.
02:38Shanghai and Hong Kong also opened their exchanges after a long weekend, and Shanghai dropped
02:45over 6 percent, and the Hang Seng Index took over an 11 percent dip during the day.
02:51Japan's Nikkei Index also triggered a circuit breaker early in the morning after dropping
02:568 percent, but has now stabilized to about 6 percent.
02:59Now, all of these governments have been scrambling to implement new measures and try to minimize
03:04the impacts of Trump's tariffs.