Taiwan Stock Market May Extend Monday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, shedding almost 300 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 22,430-point plateau and it may take further damage on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on renewed trade and tariff concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower again on Monday as losses from the technology and plastics companies were mitigated by support from the financial sector.

For the day, the index lost 118.78 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 22,428.72 after trading between 22,294.11 and 22,550.50.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.49 percent, while Mega Financial jumped 1.82 percent, CTBC Financial climbed 1.01 percent, First Financial perked 0.17 percent, Fubon Financial strengthened 1.23 percent, E Sun Financial spiked 1.95 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.46 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.69 percent, Largan Precision plunged 3.10 percent, Catcher Technology crashed 3.33 percent, MediaTek dropped 0.78 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.53 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.18 percent, Formosa Plastics plummeted 3.03 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tumbled 1.90 percent, Asia Cement slumped 1.86 percent and Hon Hai Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water and trended steadily lower as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 422.17 points or 0.94 percent to finish at 44,406.36, while the NASDAQ sank 188.59 points or 0.92 percent to end at 20,412.52 and the S&P 500 dropped 49.37 points or 0.79 percent to close at 6,229.98.

The early weakness on Wall Street partly reflect profit taking following the strong upward move seen over the past few sessions.

Further selling pressure was generated in afternoon trading after President Donald Trump shared screen shots on Truth Social of letter sent to various world leaders about new tariffs set to be imposed on August 1st.

Imports from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Kazakhstan are now set to face 25 percent tariffs, according to the letters Trump posted.

Crude oil prices edged higher Monday, shrugging off oversupply concerns triggered by OPEC's decision to accelerate its production increase starting in August. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery rose $0.93 to settle at $67.93 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release June numbers for imports, exports, trade balance and consumer prices later today. In May, imports were up 25.0 percent on year and exports jumped an annual 38.6 percent for a trade surplus of $12.62 billion. Inflation was down 0.14 percent on month and up 1.55 percent on year.