Rally May Stall For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than 250 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 14,950-point plateau although investors are likely to cash in on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of this week's FOMC rate decision, while disappointing earnings news may weigh on tech sectors. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished slightly higher on Friday following gains from the financials, weakness from the plastics and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index rose 11.66 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 14,949.36 after trading between 14,902.32 and 14,996.24.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial eased 0.11 percent, while Mega Financial strengthened 1.31 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.44 percent, First Financial advanced 0.98 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 2.11 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.40 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.82 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.47 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.79 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.59 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.54 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.80 percent, Formosa Plastics declined 1.01 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 0.46 percent, Asia Cement climbed 0.79 percent, Taiwan Cement skidded 0.92 percent and Fubon Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to held early gains on Friday, quickly slipping into the red and finishing near session lows.

The Dow shed 137.61 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 31,899.29, while the NASDAQ tumbled 225.50 points or 1.87 percent to end at 11,834.11 and the S&P 500 slumped 37.32 points or 0.93 percent to close at 3,961.63.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.3 percent, the S&P jumped 2.5 percent and the Dow climbed 2.0 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to this week's highly anticipated monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by at least 75 basis points as part of its ongoing efforts to combat elevated inflation.

A steep drop by shares of Snap Inc. (SNAP) weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ after the company reported disappointing second quarter results and declined to provide guidance. Social media giant Twitter (TWTR) also reported second quarter results that missed estimates.

Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as prices fell on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended lower by $1.65 or 1.7 percent at $94.70 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide June numbers for industrial production, retail sales and M2 money supply later today. In May, industrial output rose 4.48 percent on year, retail sales added 2.7 percent on year and M2 climbed an annual 7.94 percent.