Taiwan Shares Likely Rangebound On Friday.

The Taiwan stock market on Thursday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 600 points or 3.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,600-point plateau and now it’s expected to see little movement on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data from the United States later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financials and cement companies.

For the day, the index lost 42.08 points or 0.25 percent to finish at the daily low of 16,601.61 after peaking at 16,419.42.

Among the actives, Mega Financial climbed 1.37 percent, while CTBC Financial tanked 2.61 percent, First Financial fell 0.46 percent, E Sun Financial dropped 0.98 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.36 percent, Hon Hai Precision tumbled 1.79 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.68 percent, Catcher Technology declined 1.37 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.68 percent, Formosa Plastic was down 0.49 percent, Asia Cement rose 0.20 percent, Taiwan Cement sank 0.79 percent and Cathay Financial and Fubon Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is conflicted as the Dow and S&P both opened in the green on Friday and finished the same way, while the NASDAQ saw a soft start and ended barely lower.

The Dow climbed 141.59 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 34,464.64, while the NASDAQ eased 1.72 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,736.28 and the S&P 500 rose 4.89 points or 0.12 percent to end at 4,200.88.

The lackluster performance came as traders continued to look ahead to a highly anticipated reading on inflation later today. The inflation reading is said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve and could have a significant impact on the outlook for monetary policy.

Traders were also digesting a report from the Labor Department showing weekly jobless claims once again fell to a new pandemic-era low. The continued decrease in jobless claims paints a positive picture of the labor market but also raised concerns that the Fed will move closer to tapering its asset purchases in the near future.

Also, the Commerce Department showed an unexpected pullback in durable goods orders in April, and a separate report noted that the pace of U.S. economic growth in the first quarter was unrevised from the advance estimate.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Thursday, extending gains to a fifth straight session on following a drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $0.64 or 1 percent at $66.85 a barrel.