Renewed conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices and US Treasury yields higher, and technology and AI stocks took a broad beating — bad news for investors holding semiconductor shares, though Nvidia held up its share price on the back of a large-scale buyback.

• Trump rejected the ceasefire terms proposed by Iran, and with the market worried about the impact on energy supplies, both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude rose more than 2%.
• Elevated oil prices deepened inflation concerns, sending the 10-year Treasury yield above 5.2% and the 30-year past 5.5%, both multi-year highs.
• Higher borrowing costs hit technology stocks directly: Intel fell as much as 5% during the session, AMD and Micron each dropped about 3%, and TSMC's ADR also weakened.
• Nvidia announced an additional US$150 billion in buybacks, taking the total programme to US$235 billion; its shares rose more than 3% against the trend, one of the few bright spots on the board.
• The rapid rise in yields suggests central banks around the world may still have to raise interest rates, but that would also make governments' large fiscal deficits harder to manage.

Outlook: As long as the fighting in the Middle East and oil prices fail to cool, yields could keep climbing, and pressure on Taiwan's stock market and AI-related shares is likely to persist in the near term.