Losing Streak May Continue For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling almost 550 points or 2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 27,400-point plateau and it may see mild consolidation again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index plunged 506.06 points or 1.81 percent to finish at 27,397.50 after trading between 27,383.34 and 27,816.45.

Among the actives, Mega Financial slipped 0.25 percent, while First Financial dropped 0.88 percent, Fubon Financial skidded 0.74 percent, E Sun Financial was down 0.33 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 2.05 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.67 percent, Hon Hai Precision plummeted 4.37 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.57 percent, Catcher Technology soared 2.94 percent, MediaTek slumped 1.20 percent, Delta Electronics plunged 3.76 percent, Novatek Microelectronics shed 0.51 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.23 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 3.35 percent, Asia Cement added 0.40 percent and Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.