Soft Start Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one session after halting the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 400 points or 2.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,390-point plateau and it’s expected to head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with support from technology stocks and weakness from oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index gained 82.75 points or 0.48 percent to finish at the daily high of 17,390.61 after moving as low as 17,150.52.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.55 percent, while Mega Financial fell 0.30 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.45 percent, Fubon Financial slid 0.41 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.58 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.72 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.35 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.63 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.28 percent, MediaTek sank 0.71 percent, Formosa Plastic dropped 0.96 percent, Taiwan Cement declined 0.77 percent and First Financial and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is wildly inconsistent as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but then went off on their own different directions. The NASDAQ stayed positive, the Dow stayed negative and the S&P 500 hugged the line and finished barely in the red.

The Dow dropped 210.22 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 33,823.45, while the NASDAQ spiked 121.67 points or 0.87 percent to end at 14,161.35 and the S&P 500 eased 1.84 points or 0.04 percent to close at 4,221.86.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders moved out of cyclicals and into tech stocks after Wednesday’s announcement from the Federal Reserve, which saw the central bank move up its timeline for raising interest rates.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted an unexpected uptick in initial jobless claims last week. Also, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity expanded at a slightly slower rate in June.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday, weighed down by a stronger dollar after Federal Reserve officials projected that interest rates might be hiked by 2023. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.11 or 1.5 percent at $71.04 a barrel.