Taiwan Bourse May Take Additional Damage On Monday

The Taiwan stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after ending the three-day slide in which it had retreated more than 440 points or 2.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 17,250-point plateau and it’s expected to open lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on disappointing earnings news and renewed coronavirus concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday as the financial shares, technology stocks and cement companies were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index shed 155.39 points or 0.89 percent to finish at 17,247.41 after trading between 17,237.67 and 17,429.01.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.91 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.22 percent, Fubon Financial declined 1.06 percent, First Financial lost 0.66 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.38 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation surged 5.86 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.90 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.35 percent, Catcher Technology sank 0.80 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.47 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.54 percent, Formosa Plastic perked 0.20 percent, Asia Cement surrendered 1.15 percent, Taiwan Cement slid 0.57 percent and Mega Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the trading session.

The Dow sank 149.06 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 34,935.47, while the NASDAQ dropped 105.59 points or 0.71 percent to end at 14,672.68 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.54 percent to close at 4,395.26.

For the week, the NASDAQ shed 1.1 percent and the Dow and S&P both eased 0.4 percent. But for the month of July, the S&P spiked 2.3 percent, the Dow rose 1.3 percent and the NASDAQ was up 1.2 percent.

A steep drop from Amazon (AMZN) weighed on the markets, with the online retail giant plunging by 7.6 percent to its lowest closing level in well over a month. This came after the company reported second quarter earnings that beat expectations, but its revenues missed estimates for the first time since the third quarter of 2018.

Caterpillar (CAT), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) also moved to the downside despite reporting quarterly results that exceeded analyst estimates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department noted a slight increase in personal income in June and personal spending also increased. Also, the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment in U.S. fell less than estimated in July.

Crude oil futures settled higher Friday amid hopes energy demand will grow faster than supply despite a resurgence in coronavirus infections across the globe. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up by $0.33 or 0.5 percent at $73.95 a barrel. WTI Crude futures gained 2.6 percent in the week and 0.7 percent in July.