The China Mail - Stock markets slip with trade deals in focus

Taiwan vowed to remain the world's "most important" maker of chips for artificial intelligence after reaching a trade deal with the United States that will reduce tariffs on the island's shipments and increase Taiwanese investment on US soil.

It comes one day after Taiwanese chipmaking titan TSMC posted a jump in profits, bolstering confidence that massive AI investments will pay off.

"The surge in demand for AI products manufactured by TSMC has pricked up the ears of the US administration," said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.

"The AI juggernaut clearly has further to run, with demand for AI chips seemingly insatiable for now," she added.

Taipei's stock market closed up two percent Friday, while shares in TSMC advanced three percent.

On Thursday, Wall Street's tech-rich Nasdaq index had piled on more than one percent early in the session thanks to gains among leading chip companies.

But later in the day there was "kind of a roll-back in the megacap stock and semiconductors", said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

That followed remarks from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick indicating that semiconductor companies that do not build plants in the United States could face 100 percent tariffs, though the three main Wall Street indices finished moderately higher.

Elsewhere on the international trade front, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Friday on a raft of measures at the first meeting between the countries' leaders in Beijing in eight years.

Carney hailed a "landmark deal" under a "new strategic partnership", turning the page on years of diplomatic spats, retaliatory arrests of each country's citizens and tariff disputes.

In commodities trading, oil prices rebounded after shedding five percent Thursday as US President Donald Trump stepped back from military action in crude producer Iran.

- Key figures at around 1115 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 10,248.80 points

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 25,305.75

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,271.69

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 53,936.17 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 26,844.96 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 4,101.91 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 49,442.44 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1614 from $1.1605 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3406 from $1.3377

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 158.10 yen from 158.63 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN 86.64 from 86.75 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $64.48 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $59.75 per barrel

O.Tse--ThChM