Taiwan Shares Expected To Extend Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped more than 70 points or 0.5 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,480-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on lingering concerns over the outlook for interest rates following the recent batch of data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets also figure to open in the red.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index lost 70.80 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 15,479.70 after trading between 15,418.43 and 15,503.75.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial spiked 2.21 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.30 percent, CTBC Financial perked 0.22 percent, Fubon Financial strengthened 1.52 percent, First Financial eased 0.19 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tumbled 1.89 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation dipped 0.20 percent, Largan Precision tanked 2.26 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.69 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.51 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.62 percent, Formosa Plastics gathered 0.45 percent, Nan Ya Plastics gained 0.40 percent, Asia Cement increased 0.71 percent, Taiwan Cement improved 1.33 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Catcher Technology were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the major averages opened in the red on Friday, although the Dow managed to break into the positive territory and finish mildly in the green.

The Dow climbed 129.79 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 33,826.69, while the NASDAQ slumped 68.53 points or 0.58 percent to close at 11,787.27 and the S&P 500 fell 11.32 points or 0.28 percent to end at 4,079.09. For the week, the Dow eased 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ rose 0.6 percent and the S&P dipped 0.3 percent.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the week's batch of economic data, which has led to worries the Federal Reserve could raise rates higher than currently anticipated.

Recent comments from Fed officials have added to the concerns, with some suggesting the central bank could raise rates by another 50 basis points next month.

The recovery attempt came as treasury yields showed a notable turnaround, with the benchmark ten-year yield pulling back off its highest levels in well over a month.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Friday, extending its recent losing streak to four days as traders worried about the impact of rate hikes on energy demand. West Texas Intermediate tumbled $2.15 or 2.7 percent to $76.34 per barrel. For the week, oil slumped 4.2 percent.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide January figures for export orders later today, plus Q4 data for balance of payments and current account. Export orders are expected to plummet 25.0 percent on year after sinking 23.2 percent in December. The balance of payments in Q3 was $4.12 billion and the current account surplus was $20.71 billion.