Polls show the three main candidates are neck and neck and analysts say the stock market has become their latest battlefield. The ruling party, or Kuomintang, has been warning the public that if the populist pro-independence candidate wins, Beijing will get edgy, and that'll be bad for the economy. But the pro-independence leader Chen Shui Bian put the blame for the plummeting stock market squarely back in the ruling party's court. He accused the Kuomintang of trying to scare voters into electing the same party that's been in power for the past half century by hitting them in the pocketbook. About 80 percent of working Taiwanese are invested in the market.
Analysts say it's common for Taiwan's stock market to ratchet down around election time.
Foreign investors, however, are betting Taiwan's economy will remain strong. Today, they bought shares figuring they were getting a good deal. In Taipei, this is Jocelyn Ford for Marketplace. The Dow went up by a scant 18 points, although nearly 700 more stocks were down than up on the New York Stock Exchange today. Disappointed by what was seen as a penny-pinching offer to buy the company, insurance company Aetna says it's breaking itself into two in an effort to streamline the company and boost its perceived value to shareholders.