Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market rebounded on Monday, one session after snapping the seven-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 750 points or 4.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 16,840-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky ahead of a possible U.S. government shutdown. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the technology stocks and financials were capped by weakness from the cement and plastic stocks.

For the day, the index advanced 156.62 points or 0.94 percent to finish at 16,839.29 after trading between 16,711.53 and 16,961.02.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial gained 0.67 percent, while Mega Financial rose 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.39 percent, First Financial perked 0.19 percent, Fubon Financial gathered 0.33 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company soared 2.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation advanced 0.82 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.51 percent, Largan Precision jumped 1.91 percent, MediaTek accelerated 2.49 percent, Delta Electronics retreated 1.32 percent, Novatek Microelectronics strengthened 1.25 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.26 percent, Nan Ya Plastics and Taiwan Cement both dipped 0.15 percent, Asia Cement improved 0.50 percent, China Steel slumped 0.61 percent and Catcher Technology and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened sharply lower on Monday before recovering to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 54.77 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 34,337.87, while the NASDAQ slipped 30.36 points or 0.22 percent to close at 13,767.74 and the S&P 500 fell 3.69 points or 0.08 percent to end at 4,411.55.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as some traders looked to cash in on last week's rally, which lifted the tech-heavy NASDAQ to a nearly two-month closing high.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to news credit rating agency Moody's has lowered its outlook for the U.S. credit rating to negative from stable amid concerns about a possible government shutdown.

The selling pressure was offset by a New York Federal Reserve report showing a modest decrease in consumer inflation expectations, sparking optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices moved up on Monday, gaining for a third straight session amid some optimism about the outlook for energy demand, as well as a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $1.09 or 1.4 percent at $78.26 a barrel.