The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the seven-day winning streak in which it had soared almost 450 points or 4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just shy of the 10,835-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start for Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is slightly soft on trade concerns between the U.S. and China, although the downside may be limited by support from crude oil prices. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the technology stocks and steel companies.
For the day, the index lost 63.76 points or 0.59 percent to finish at the daily low of 10,833.81 after peaking at 10,938.63 on turnover of 132.35 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the actives, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation dropped 1.74 percent, while United Microelectronics Corporation skidded 1.53 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.47 percent, Catcher Technology retreated 1.16 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 3.21 percent, China Steel lost 0.64 percent, Taiwan Steel Union fell 0.44 percent, Formosa Chemicals spiked 1.73 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.57 percent and Cathay Financial, Innolux and Mega Financial were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as stocks showed a lack of direction on Thursday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing modestly lower.
The Dow dipped 54.95 points or 0.22 percent to 24,713.98, the NASDAQ slipped 15.82 points or 0.21 percent to 7,382.47 and the S&P 500 edged down 2.33 points or 0.09 percent to 2,720.13.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed uncertainty about the second round of trade talks between the U.S. and China. Blaming the policies of previous administrations, President Donald Trump expressed doubt about whether the talks with China will be successful.
In economic news, the Conference Board noted an increase in its index of leading economic indicators, while the Labor Department reported a bigger than expected increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended May 12. Also, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed a spike in regional manufacturing activity in May.
Energy stocks saw considerable strength, with the sector continuing to perform well even as the price of crude oil pulled back off its early highs. After reaching a three-and-a-half year high of $72.30 a barrel, crude for June delivery ended the day unchanged at $71.49 a barrel.
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