Asia Rebounds as Taiwan Curbs Short Selling, Brent Slips Toward $97 and China's Factory Prices Jump

Asian stock markets rebounded on Monday, November 9, after a week in which chip shares sank toward a technical bear market. The strongest move came in Taiwan, where the Taiex rose about 4.9% and reached as high as 6.7% intraday, ending a seven-day losing streak, according to the XTB Morning Wrap. Some outlets reported larger gains, with HDFC Sky giving a rise of about 5.7%, so the exact figure depends on the time of the snapshot.

What Taiwan did

Taiwan's regulator restricted short selling and put a stabilization fund of 500 billion Taiwan dollars, about $15.2 billion, on standby, according to XTB. Bloomberg reported on November 6 that Taiwan had imposed a short-selling limit after the market rout, and an MLQ headline described a 12% weekly slide in the Taiex that preceded the authorization of the fund. HDFC Sky called it the steepest weekly drop in two decades.

Among large companies, TSMC rose about 4.7%, MediaTek more than 4% and Foxconn about 6.5%, according to XTB. Reuters reported TSMC up 6.5% in a separate account. The figures differ because they were taken at different times. Authorities have stepped in because the index is heavily weighted toward chipmakers, which fell sharply last week, as covered in our Asia and Europe selloff report.

Japan and South Korea

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose about 2.5% and the broader Topix about 3%, according to XTB. HDFC Sky reported a 3.4% gain for the Nikkei, and NordFX gave 2.5% to 58,874, again reflecting different snapshot times. Semiconductor stocks led the recovery after last week's decline.

South Korea's Kospi ended around flat, according to XTB, with SK Hynix up about 4.6% and Samsung up about 2.4%. MLQ's headline attributed the Kospi's weakness to foreign selling. Goldman Sachs' AI memory stock index had fallen 51% from its June peak, according to XTB, which shows how far the sector had dropped before Monday's bounce.

Japan's record yen defense

Japan’s Ministry of Finance disclosed on November 9 that authorities had bought ¥7,975.6 billion (about $50.4 billion) of yen on July 30, 2026, a record single-day intervention. The operation was part of three intervention days from July 30 to August 3, totaling ¥15,399.3 billion. The disclosure is new; the actual transactions occurred during the summer, not on Monday. The figures come directly from the ministry’s July–September intervention report. The release provides an important backdrop to renewed scrutiny of the yen, without establishing that Japan intervened again on November 9.

Oil: diplomacy outweighs weekend attacks

Brent crude fell 1.08% to $96.68 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate fell 0.62% to $89.76, according to XTB. Another XTB note put Brent near $96.3. The drop followed President Donald Trump's remark that a resumption of war with Iran was "highly unlikely" while talks continue, according to HDFC Sky and XTB. XTB said the market largely ignored weekend attacks on Saudi Aramco and the Khor Mor gas field. The U.S. strike on a cargo ship and the expanded blockade are covered in our Monday-open analysis.

China: producer prices up, consumer prices soft

China's producer price index rose 5.7% from a year earlier in October against a consensus of 5.3%, the highest since June 2022, according to XTB. Consumer prices rose 0.7% against an expected 0.8%, and core CPI was 0.8%. Food prices dropped 2.9%. The gap between factory and consumer inflation means producers face higher costs that they have not yet passed on to shoppers.

China's CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite rose about 0.4%, and the Hang Seng was unchanged. Beijing also extended its suspension of 24% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods by two months, leaving the rate at 10%, according to XTB.

Gold, the dollar and U.S. rates

Gold rose about 1.2% to near $4,119 an ounce and silver rose about 1.6% to $52.71, according to XTB. Markets price about an 80% chance of a Federal Reserve hike in December after October payrolls rose 165,000, and the 10-year Treasury yield stands near 4.87%. HDFC Sky said the dollar posted its biggest one-day gain in five months last week. U.S. consumer price data is due Tuesday.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.09% on Friday to 24,579, the S&P 500 rose 0.31% to 7,377 and the Dow fell 0.46% to 51,286, according to XTB and NordFX. U.S. index futures were slightly lower in early trading according to XTB's note, with the US100 down 0.61% near 26,940, while HDFC Sky described them as slightly higher earlier. Futures moved during the morning as news about Nvidia broke, as covered in our technology report.

What the data shows

The rebound is real but narrow. It is led by markets where officials acted, such as Taiwan and Japan, and by oil's retreat. The gains followed a steep fall, and analysts describe the Nasdaq as oversold, which XTB noted. A bounce from an oversold level does not show that the selloff is over.

What to watch

The first test is whether Taiwan's gains hold without the stabilization fund being used, which would suggest real buying. The second is U.S. consumer price data on Tuesday and its effect on interest-rate expectations. The third is Brent, which has moved sharply on each Iran headline. The fourth is any new official signal about the yen after the disclosure of July’s intervention.

Limits of the data

Figures come from broker commentary and secondary reports, and several differ by source and time. The intervention amounts have been confirmed against Japan’s Finance Ministry, while other market snapshots differ by provider and time. Market moves can reverse during the day.