Taiwan Shares May Take Further Damage On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market turned lower again on Monday. One session after snapping the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 520 points or 2.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 19,100-point plateau and it's expected to open under water again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on continuing concerns over the possibility of a trade war. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index stumbled 288.83 points or 1.49 percent to finish at 19,106.20 after trading between 19,080.60 and 19,359.96.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial both eased 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.40 percent, First Financial shed 0.40 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined 1.76 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation and MediaTek both retreated 1.47 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.74 percent, Largan Precision stumbled 1.86 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.47 percent, Delta Electronics tanked 2.35 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skidded 1.00 percent, Formosa Plastics surrendered 2.40 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tumbled 1.96 percent, Asia Cement improved 0.79 percent and Fubon Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened sharply lower on Monday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow plummeted 971.82 points or 2.48 percent to finish at 38,170.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 415.55 points or 2.55 percent to close at 16,870.37 and the S&P 500 dropped 124.50 points or 2.36 percent to end at 5,158.20.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid lingering concerns about a global trade war as traders await signs of progress from President Donald Trump's trade talks.

Potentially adding to the worries, China has threatened to retaliate against any countries that reach a trade deal with the U.S. at the expense of China's interests.

Trump's continued attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell added to the negative sentiment; he called on the Fed to lower rates last week, declaring, "Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!"

Crude oil prices pulled back sharply Monday on reports of progress in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, while trade war concerns also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery plunged $1.60 or 2.5 percent to $63.08 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see March numbers for export orders and unemployment later today; in February, orders surged 31.1 percent on year and the jobless rate was 3.35 percent.