Taiwan Shares May Head South On Tuesday

(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 winning streak in which it had rallied more than 270 points or 1.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 19,300-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild consolidation ahead of key data later this week that could affect the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial hares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index jumped 369.38 points or 1.95 percent to finish at 19,305.31 after trading between 18,952.69 and 19,333.39.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.65 percent, while CTBC Financial added 0.52 percent, First Financial shed 0.37 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company skyrocketed 5.22 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation climbed 1.14 percent, Hon Hai Precision surged 4.41 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.19 percent, Catcher Technology improved 0.76 percent, MediaTek soared 4.07 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 1.17 percent, Formosa Plastics skidded 1.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics sank 0.85 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.25 percent, Taiwan Cement rose 0.20 percent, China Steel dropped 1.02 percent and Delta Electronics, Cathay Financial, Fubon Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Monday, rallied in the afternoon but sank back into the red by the close.

The Dow dropped 97.55 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 38,989.83, while the NASDAQ sank 67.43 points or 0.41 percent to close at 16,207.51 and the S&P 500 eased 6.13 points or 0.12 percent to close at 5,130.95.

The weakness on Wall Street was the result of caution on the part of investors, with several significant data points on tap for the coming days.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony will be in focus for clues about the outlook for interest rates. Powell is due to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Then on Friday is the Labor Department's highly anticipated employment report for February, which also could affect the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures ended lower on Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand after OPEC extended its output cuts to the end of the second quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $1.23 or 1.5 percent at 78.74 a barrel.