Mild Technical Rebound Likely For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market turned emphatically lower again on Wednesday, one day after ending the eight-day losing streak in which it had plummeted more than 1,300 points or 8.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,350-point plateau and it's expected to remain rangebound on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on fears of continued policy tightening and worldwide recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Wednesday following heavy losses among the financials, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index plunged 380.89 points or 2.42 percent to finish at 15,347.75 after trading between 15,346.95 and 15,687.46.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial declined 2.21 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.56 percent, CTBC Financial stumbled 1.51 percent, Fubon Financial tumbled 2.37 percent, First Financial slid 0.38 percent, E. Sun Financial surrendered 1.86 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor shed 2.08 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plummeted 10.55 percent, Hon Hai Precision sank 2.23 percent, MediaTek plunged 7.03 percent, Largan Precision tanked 3.61 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.61 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 2.58 percent, Asia Cement climbed 1.28 percent, Taiwan Cement rose 0.13 percent, Formosa Plastics lost 0.46 percent and Nan Ya Plastics eased 0.24 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly negative as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday, then spent most of the day in the green before slipping back into negative territory at the close.

The Dow shed 47.12 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 30,483.13, while the NASDAQ lost 16.22 points or 0.15 percent to close at 11,053.08 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.90 points or 0.13 percent to end at 3,759.89.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Powell indicated the Fed plans to continue moving expeditiously to combat inflation but argued the U.S. economy is strong enough to handle tighter monetary policy.

Powell said the pace of future interest rate hikes will be dependent on incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy and suggested the Fed will need to see "compelling evidence" that inflation is slowing before it begins to scale back its monetary policy tightening plans.

Crude oil futures tumbled on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to slowing global growth following sharp interest rate hikes by central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $3.33 or 3 percent at $106.19 a barrel, the lowest settlement in six weeks.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide May data for industrial production, retail sales and unemployment later today. In April, production was up 7.33 percent on year, retail sales rose 4.7 percent on year and the jobless rate was 3.68 percent.