Super Typhoon Kong-Rey hits Taiwan: Stock market suspended, travel disrupted as monster storm nears the island.
Taiwan has suspended trading on its $2.5 trillion stock market as residents braced for a direct hit from Super Typhoon Kong-Rey, one of the most significant storms to strike the island this late in the year.
Kong-Rey is packing top winds of 51 meters per second, or 114 miles per hour, and is forecast to cross the east coast on Thursday afternoon, according to the local weather bureau. The typhoon is equivalent to a tree-snapping Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Flights have been canceled, people have evacuated areas near where Kong-Rey is poised to make landfall, and offices and schools have been shut. The storm has already soaked parts of the northern Philippines, and Shanghai is expected to see the heaviest rain in four decades because of the typhoon.
This year, for the first time since 2015, stock trading has been suspended for the third time because of a storm. Krathon earlier this month and Gaemi in July also led to halts. Neighboring Hong Kong ended its decades-long practice of shutting markets during storms in late September.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the go-to chipmaker for Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., has activated routine typhoon alert preparation at its plants. A spate of companies have issued exchange filings announcing delays to board and shareholders meetings and the delivery of cash dividends.
The typhoon is affecting travel. According to Taiwanese authorities, rail services have been stopped, and 229 domestic and 298 international flights were canceled as of 10 a.m. local time.
