Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than 450 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 27,800-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amidst a lack of catalysts, although oil and technology stocks may provide support. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourse were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished barely higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, losses from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology companies.

For the day, the index perked 2.67 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 27,795.71 after trading between 27,636.63 and 27,880.23.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rallied 2.07 percent, while Mega Financial expanded 1.12 percent, First Financial increased 0.73 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.72 percent, E Sun Financial strengthened 1.32 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company lost 0.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.05 percent, Hon Hai Precision improved 0.66 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.98 percent, MediaTek added 0.36 percent, Delta Electronics rose 0.20 percent, Novatek Microelectronics retreated 1.41 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.39 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 6.35 percent, Asia Cement shed 0.51 percent and Largan Precision and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but spent the day bouncing back and forth across the changed line, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 31.96 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 47,850.94, while the NASDAQ added 51.04 points or 0.22 percent to close at 23,505.14 and the S&P 500 rose 7.40 points or 0.11 percent to end at 6,857.12.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the near-term outlook for the markets following the volatility earlier in the week.

Traders largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a three-year low last week.

While the data partly offset recent optimism about the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates next week, the central bank is still widely expected to lower rates by another quarter point.

Crude oil prices advanced on Thursday as expectations of an end to the Russia-Ukraine war dimmed. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.70 or 1.19 percent at $59.65 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release November numbers for consumer prices later today; in October, overall inflation was up 0.47 percent on month and 1.48 percent on year.