Lower Open Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 1,000 points or 4.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,125-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the computer, semiconductor and housing sectors. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dropped 148.17 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 23,125.08 after trading between 23,071.43 and 23,329.01.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dropped 0.87 percent, while Mega Financial shed 0.63 percent, CTBC Financial eased 0.16 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.55 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company slumped 0.93 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.79 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.54 percent, Largan Precision rose 0.20 percent, Catcher Technology plunged 4.85 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.89 percent, Delta Electronics lost 0.49 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.21 percent, Formosa Plastics rallied 1.24 percent, Nan Ya Plastics fell 0.54 percent, Asia Cement was down 0.47 percent and First Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened flat on Tuesday and hugged the line for most of the session before sinking firmly into the red late in the day.

The Dow dropped 154.10 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 44,247.83, while the NASDAQ sank 49.45 points or 0.25 percent to close at 19,687.24 and the S&P 500 fell 17.94 points or 0.30 percent to end at 6,034.91.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came as traders continued to cash in on recent strength in the markets ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched report on consumer price inflation later today.

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower rates by another 25 basis points next week, the data could impact the outlook for future rate cuts by the central bank.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 86.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next week but a 69.1 percent chance the central bank will then leave rates unchanged in late January.

Oil futures settled higher on Tuesday amid hopes that demand from China will increase following recent stimulus measures announced by the Chinese government. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $0.22 or 0.32 percent at $68.59 a barrel.