Taiwan Bourse May Extend Wednesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had spiked more than 800 points or 3.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 23,400-point plateau and it may take further damage on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat and directionless on conflicting leads over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the technology, cement and plastics companies, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index slumped 243.94 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 23,407.33 after trading between 23,388.63 and 23,671.28.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.43 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.39 percent, First Financial added 0.54 percent, Fubon Financial dropped 0.87 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.74 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 2.21 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation advanced 0.83 percent, Hon Hai Precision skidded 1.05 percent, Largan Precision stumbled 2.06 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.25 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.34 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.93 percent, Novatek Microelectronics gained 0.60 percent, Formosa Plastics plunged 3.76 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tumbled 2.17 percent, Asia Cement slumped 1.60 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests little movement as the major averages opened slightly lower on Wednesday, bounced back and forth across the line all day before ending mixed and largely unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following the release of mixed U.S. jobs data.

While payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector job growth slowed more than expected in December, the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in almost 11 months.

While the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting later in the day, they did not provide much insight into the outlook for interest rates other than to suggest officials plan to take a "careful approach" to future decisions.

Oil futures closed lower on Wednesday as a sharp increase in gasoline stockpiles and a stronger dollar weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended lower by $0.93 or 1.25 percent at $73.32 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide December data for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in November, imports were up 19.8 percent on year and exports rose an annual 9.7 percent for a trade surplus of $7.92 billion.