Taiwan's market opened lower and stayed choppy near flat, a mixed day for investors as big-cap strength cancelled out a broad slide in chip stocks.

• The index opened down about 150 points and briefly fell further before clawing back to flat.
• Memory, chip design, and chip-packaging shares led the drop, including Nanya Technology, Winbond, and MediaTek.
• TSMC, Quanta, Compal, and bank stocks rose and held the market up.
• The weakness followed a losing session on Wall Street, where the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the semiconductor index all fell.
• Stalled U.S.-Iran talks pushed oil prices and U.S. government bond yields higher, souring sentiment.

Outlook: Taiwan's market looks set to keep drifting sideways unless the Iran talks break the deadlock or chip stocks find support.