Renewed Selling Pressure Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 220 points or 1.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 17,160-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with earnings news possibly steering the markets. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mostly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the financials and plastics were offset by weakness from the cement and technology sectors.

For the day, the index added 48.45 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 17,164.89 after trading between 17,098.65 and 17,214.41.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial rose 0.56 percent, while Mega Financial jumped 1.29 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.58 percent, First Financial added 0.53 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.32 percent, E Sun Financial gained 0.57 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plunged 2.95 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.46 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.32 percent, MediaTek lost 0.57 percent, Delta Electronics and Taiwan Cement both dipped 0.14 percent, Novatek Microelectronics strengthened 1.24 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.48 percent, Nan Ya Plastics was up 0.14 percent, Asia Cement plummeted 4.71 percent, China Steel gathered 0.51 percent and Catcher Technology was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent and uninspiring as the major averages opened and closed mixed on Thursday; the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ and S&P opened lower and remained in the red throughout.

The Dow climbed 163.97 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 35,225.18, while the NASDAQ tumbled 294.71 points or 2.05 percent to close at 14,063.31 and the S&P 500 sank 30.85 points or 0.68 percent to end at 4,534.87.

The sharp pullback by the Nasdaq came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from companies like Netflix (NFLX) and Tesla (TSLA). On the other hand, the narrower Dow benefitted from a spike from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) after solid earnings news.

Traders also reacted to a Labor Department report showing that first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly dipped last week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday and lifted the August series futures contract to a positive close on the expiration day amid fears of declining supplies from Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $75.63 a barrel, gaining $0.28 or 0.4 percent.