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The Ministry of Finance released September customs import and export statistics on the 8th. According to PTS and the Taipei Times, September exports came to US$87.22 billion, a record for a single month, up more than 60% year-on-year, and the 35th straight month of positive growth. August exports were about US$82 billion, already a monthly record and the 34th straight month of growth at the time (TaiwanPlus); September lifted the bar another step. The driver has not changed: AI-driven demand for servers, chips and networking equipment. PTS reported that electronics and information-and-communications products rose 72.6% year-on-year, while other products grew only 25.4%. The Ministry of Finance's view is that, with the year-end buying season coming, fourth-quarter exports should keep growing. Scholars cautioned that traditional industries have not benefited to the same degree and that Taiwan must still work to join regional trade agreements to open up markets for them.

On the same day, TSMC reported its September revenue. The Taipei Times reported that TSMC's third-quarter consolidated revenue jumped to about NT$1.49 trillion; Reuters reported that third-quarter revenue was a record and above market expectations. The guidance TSMC gave for the third quarter at its July investor conference was US$44.6 billion to US$45.8 billion, which, at the company's assumed rate of NT$32 to the U.S. dollar, works out to roughly NT$1.43 trillion to NT$1.47 trillion. On that conversion, actual revenue has already passed the top of the guidance range, but this is DailyDrop's estimate; the official U.S. dollar revenue, gross margin and fourth-quarter outlook must wait for the company's investor conference. TSMC's tight capacity shows up elsewhere, too: on the 8th, U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries announced a US$2 billion agreement with TSMC to make key components that connect AI processors with memory for TSMC. See the story lower on this page.

The good news did not lift the market. On the 8th, the last trading day before the holiday break, Taiwan stocks fell 492.93 points to close at 49,313.44, and foreign investors net sold about NT$75.8 billion. The NT dollar closed at 31.875 to the U.S. dollar, down NT$0.08, reflecting outflows of foreign money; during the holiday, overseas quotes extended the decline to about 31.95 in the early hours of the 9th. The main causes were U.S. Treasury yields staying at multi-year highs and international oil prices rising again on Middle East news, which leaves the market worried about inflation and interest rates. Taiwan's stock market is closed during the National Day holiday; the next trading day is Monday the 12th. By then, investors will have three things to digest: how U.S. stocks trade over the holiday, whether oil falls back, and market expectations ahead of TSMC's investor conference. DailyDrop asks readers to separate two layers: record exports and revenue speak to company orders and shipments, while the fall in share prices reflects the cost of capital and risk appetite. Both can be true at once. Another point worth noting is concentration: when electronics and information-and-communications products are up 70% and other products only 25%, the more dazzling the headline numbers, the wider the gap between industries. For ordinary households, the benefit of record exports spreads only slowly, through company profits, pay raises and dividends, and at a pace that varies by industry. That is also why scholars raised regional trade agreements again.