Taiwan Shares Likely To Remain Rangebound On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had risen more than 300 points or 1.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 22,050-point plateau although they may tick lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to U.S. involvement in the Israel/Iran conflict. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but the Asian markets figure to open under water.

The TSE finished slightly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial hares and the technology stocks.

For the day, the index rose 42.24 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 22,045.74 after trading between 21,779.55 and 22,089.48.

Among the actives, Mega Financial eased 0.12 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.31 percent, First Financial shed 0.52 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.16 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.63 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.93 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.21 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.97 percent, Largan Precision slipped 0.42 percent, MediaTek skidded 1.19 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.99 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 1.37 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 0.58 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 3.05 percent and Asia Cement, Cathay Financial and Catcher Technology were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street remains murky as the major averages opened higher on but quickly fell under water, finally finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 35.16 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 42,206.82, while the NASDAQ dropped 98.86 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19,447.41 and the S&P 500 sank 13.03 points or 0.22 percent to end at 5,967.84.

The positive boost to kick off trade on Wall Street came after the White House said President Donald Trump sees a "substantial chance of negotiations" and would decide within two weeks whether to authorize a direct U.S. military strike on Iran.

Of course, on Saturday the United States bombed three sites in Iran that are suspected nuclear development areas. The fallout from those attacks remains uncertain.

On the economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said on Friday that regional manufacturing activity remained weak in June. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity was unchanged in June after jumping to a negative 4.0 in May, with a negative reading indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to rise to a negative 1.0.

Crude oil price slipped on Friday as concerns of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict faded, even as the fighting between the two nations intensified. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery closed down by $0.21 to $74.93 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide May unemployment numbers later today; in April, the jobless rate was 3.36 percent.