Taiwan Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than 430 points or 2.1 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 20,650-point plateau although it's likely to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, matching the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology stocks were mitigated by selling pressure among the financial and plastics companies.

For the day, the index gained 130.22 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 20,653.53 after trading between 20,493.80 and 20,689.19.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.49 percent, while CTBC Financial fell 0.28 percent, First Financial lost 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial dipped 0.14 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.78 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.19 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.19 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 1.33 percent, Catcher Technology rallied 1.59 percent, MediaTek advanced 0.97 percent, Delta Electronics improved 1.24 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.79 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 1.01 percent, Nan Ya Plastics declined 1.39 percent, Asia Cement slumped 0.67 percent, Taiwan Cement gained 0.61 percent, China Steel dropped 0.80 percent and Cathay Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but faded to finish mixed and barely changed.

The Dow added 31.99 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 38,884.26, while the NASDAQ slipped 16.69 points or 0.10 percent to close at 16,332.56 and the S&P 500 rose 6.96 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,187.70.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Relatively dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell combined with weaker-than-expected job growth in April have largely eliminated short-lived concerns the Fed might actually consider raising rates.

However, buying interest waned in afternoon trading after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an "extended period."

Oil futures settled slightly lower on Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.10 at $78.38 a barrel.