Losses May Accelerate For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the five-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 400 points or 2.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 17,820-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on renewed COVID-19 concerns and the resulting drop in crude oil prices. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and a mixed performance from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 23.09 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 17,818.31 after trading between 17,786.05 and 17,986.18.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial tumbled 1.90 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.14 percent, CTBC Financial surrendered 2.02 percent, Fubon Financial tanked 2.09 percent, First Financial skidded 1.04 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.07 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 0.82 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation spiked 3.17 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.47 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.94 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.92 percent, MediaTek rose 0.46 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.38 percent, Formosa Plastic plunged 3.27 percent, Asia Cement gained 0.78 percent and Taiwan Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the Dow opened lower on Friday and stayed that way and the NASDAQ opened higher and closed at a record high. The S&P 500 opened slightly lower, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line and ended slightly in the red.

The Dow dropped 268.92 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 35,601.98, while the NASDAQ added 63.74 points or 0.40 percent to close at 16,057.44 and the S&P 500 eased 6.58 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,697.96. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.2 percent, the S&P rise 0.3 percent and the Dow lost 1.4 percent.

Renewed COVID-19 concerns weighed on cyclical stocks as a brutal fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across Europe. Austria has announced a full national COVID-19 lockdown starting today, while Germany has announced more restrictions on unvaccinated people.

The potential of more European countries reinstating full lockdowns sparked worries the pandemic could once again weigh down the global economy.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy NASDAQ benefitted from continued strength among technology stocks following some upbeat earnings news from companies such as software firm Intuit (INTU) and cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks (PANW).

Crude oil prices plunged sharply on Friday amid rising concerns about the outlook for energy demand following a surge in COVID-19 cases and fresh restrictions in some European countries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December settled at $75.94 a barrel, losing $2.47 or 3.2 percent.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide October numbers for export orders and unemployment later today. In September, export orders surged 25.7 percent on year, while the jobless rate was 3.92 percent.