Taiwan Shares Tipped To Head South Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one day after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 260 points or 1.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,610-point plateau although it may see renewed consolidation on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the health of the financial system and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are predicted to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the financials and plastics were offset by weakness from the technology shares.

For the day, the index added 55.62 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 15,609.03 after trading between 15,523.50 and 15,622.41.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.24 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.44 percent, CTBC Financial and Nan Ya Plastics both gained 0.65 percent, First Financial rose 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.85 percent, E Sun Financial improved 0.40 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.40 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.60 percent, Hon Hai Precision lost 0.47 percent, Largan Precision fell 0.50 percent, Catcher Technology sank 0.55 percent, MediaTek tumbled 1.76 percent, Delta Electronics jumped 1.84 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dropped 0.82 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.11 percent, Asia Cement gathered 0.45 percent, Taiwan Cement eased 0.13 percent and China Steel dipped 0.17 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 286.50 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 33,127.74, while the NASDAQ dropped 58.93 points or 0.49 percent to close at 11,966.40 and the S&P 500 sank 29.53 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,061.22.

The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflects ongoing concerns about turmoil among regional banks after lenders PacWest Bancorp (PACW) and First Horizon (FHN) said they were reviewing their options.

Continued uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also weighed following the Federal Reserve's tenth straight rate hike on Wednesday. While the Fed's accompanying statement seemed to suggest the central bank plans to pause its rate hiking cycle, Fed Chair Jerome Powell clouded the outlook with a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.

Crude oil futures pared early losses and settled just slightly lower on Thursday, due largely to some short-covering and speculative buying. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $0.04 at $68.56 a barrel, recovering well from a low of $63.57 a barrel.