Soft Start Predicted For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, plunging more than 850 points or 3.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 23,625-point plateau and it's expected to at least open in the red again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with technology stocks expected to continue to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index plummeted 728.06 points or 2.99 percent to finish at 23,625.44 after trading between 23,620.24 and 24,309.27.

Among the actives, Mega Financial skidded 1.07 percent, while First Financial dipped 0.34 percent, Fubon Financial declined 1.36 percent, E Sun Financial dropped 0.88 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plunged 4.22 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 2.07 percent, Hon Hai Precision tumbled 3.61 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.27 percent, MediaTek surrendered 2.52 percent, Delta Electronics plummeted 5.45 percent, Novatek Microelectronics fell 0.47 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.81 percent, Nan Ya Plastics stumbled 3.32 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.13 percent and Catcher Technology, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be soft as the major averages spent most of Wednesday in the red and finally finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 16.04 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 44,938.31, while the NASDAQ sank 142.09 points or 0.67 percent to end at 21,172.86 and the S&P 500 fell 15.59 points or 0.24 percent to close at 6,395.78.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected an extended sell-off by technology stocks following reports indicating the Trump administration is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday.

Powell's remarks could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed's next monetary policy meeting in September. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 82.9 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories in the U.S. decreased much more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $0.79 or 1.3 percent at $63.14 a barrel.