Taiwan's stock market opened weak today, falling nearly 300 points, mainly because the four major US indices closed lower the previous day — bad news for investors — though TSMC bucked the trend with a slight gain.

• Higher oil prices and rising US Treasury yields sent the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all lower.

• Walmart's earnings were the trigger: with fuel costs rising, Americans cut back on non-essential spending, and same-store sales were the worst in more than six years, sending the stock down 9.2% in a single day.

• Taiwan stocks opened lower in sympathy, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose, and TSMC still edged higher at the open.

• Foreign buying shifted noticeably towards traditional industries and mature process nodes, with Yang Ming, China Steel and UMC the top three net buys.

• There was plenty of bad news at the individual stock level: UnicornMed plunged after its advisory broker resigned and trading on the emerging stock board is due to end from September, while the already-delisted Sun Wei Energy was reported to be the target of a tender offer at NT$0.05 per share.

Outlook: as long as oil prices and US Treasury yields stay elevated, Taiwan stocks will remain under pressure alongside US markets in the near term, with funds continuing to gravitate towards traditional industries and mature process nodes.