Reuters
Some respite for Asian stock markets may bode well for the European open, in what has so far been a week to forget for world equities. Part of that seems to be driven by hopes for strong results from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, aka TSMC, undoing the gloom from Dutch chip-equipment maker ASML's lacklustre new bookings. The sentiment shift was evident in Tokyo, where chip-testing equipment maker Advantest - an Nvidia supplier - marched steadily from being down 2.5% at the open to enter the midday recess with a 4% gain.