Trump’s Taiwan Comments Spook Chip Stocks

The Trump trade, an optimistic take on how some stocks—such as those of technology companies—would fare if former President Donald Trump re-takes the White House, reacted in a different way to the ex-president Wednesday.

The catalyst was Trump’s remark in an interview critical of Taiwan, the world’s leading chipmaker, a statement seemingly indifferent to the threat posed to the island by China. Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek that Taiwan “should pay” the U.S. to protect it against any Chinese aggression.

Most equity market indexes fell Wednesday, in part owing to the negative comments by Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who is leading President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in national election polls and those in key swing states.

The Nasdaq 100, for instance, fell almost 2.8%, its worst day in almost a year. Highflying chipmaker Nvidia tumbled 6.6%. The broader S&P 500 dipped 1.4%. The lone gainer was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 0.6%. Tech is not a major part of the Dow, and only two of its members make chips: Cisco and Intel.

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“You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything,” Trump said. Taiwan has captured “about 100%” of the U.S. semiconductor business, he declared.

While it is true that Taiwan has become the predominant chipmaking nation, the U.S. is fifth ranked. Computer chips were invented in the U.S., which in 1990 had 37% of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity, compared with today’s 12%. The Biden administration in 2022 passed a law to boost chip production, although any improvement will take a while.

Wednesday marked the fifth consecutive day of a rotation out of tech stocks, as investors anticipate the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates. Tech is less dependent on debt than some other sectors. But all can be affected by the Trump trade.