Rebound Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Friday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had gained more than 600 points or 2.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,760-point plateau, although it's likely to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index slumped 197.63 points or 0.82 percent to finish at the daily low of 23,764.47 after peaking at 24,071.65.

Among the actives, Mega Financial slumped 1.20 percent, while First Financial retreated 1.37 percent, Fubon Financial shed 0.45 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.30 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined 1.30 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 1.93 percent, Hon Hai Precision contracted 1.70 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.21 percent, Catcher Technology weakened 1.30 percent, Delta Electronics rallied 2.47 percent, Novatek Microelectronics lost 0.59 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 0.62 percent, Nan Ya Plastics stumbled 2.84 percent, Asia Cement dropped 0.52 percent and Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial and MediaTek were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to trend upward as the day continued, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 846.24 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 45,631.74, while the NASDAQ rallied 396.23 points or 1.88 percent to end at 21,496.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.52 percent to close at 6,466.91.

For the week, the Dow spiked 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ slipped 0.6 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came in reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech before the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

While Powell touched only briefly on the outlook for monetary policy, his remarks have increased investor confidence that the Fed will lower interest rates next month.

Following Powell's remarks, CME Group's FedWatch Tool jumped to indicate an 83.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month, up from 75.0 percent a day earlier.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 pr 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.