Soft Start Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 360 points or 1.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 23,050-point plateau although it’s likely to turn lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, weakness from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology sector.

For the day, the index rallied 143.17 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 23,046.80 after trading between 23,030.48 and 23,189.29.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial jumped 1.75 percent, while Mega Financial perked 0.13 percent, CTBC Financial collected 1.28 percent, First Financial advanced 0.90 percent, Fubon Financial spiked 2.51 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.44 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.16 percent, Hon Hai Precision fell 0.26 percent, Largan Precision accelerated 2.02 percent, Catcher Technology slumped 1.34 percent, MediaTek soared 2.22 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.60 percent, Novatek Microelectronics lost 0.62 percent, Formosa Plastics stumbled 2.88 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 3.61 percent and Asia Cement improved 0.35 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly headed south and remained in the red for the balance of day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 234.44 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 43,914.12, while the NASDAQ sank 132.05 points or 0.66 percent to close at 19,769.84 and the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points or 0.54 percent to end at 6,051.25.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on the strong performance seen on Wednesday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed above 20,000 for the first time ever.

Some negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.

While the Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower interest rates next week, the data has raised some concerns about how quickly the central bank will cut rates early next year.

Oil futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains after the International Energy Agency’s forecast that the oil market will see excess supply next year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $70.02 a barrel.