Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 300 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 41,900-point plateau although the rally may stall on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on surging oil prices and weakness among technology stocks. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets also figure to open to the downside.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the technology stocks were capped by weakness from the financials and plastics.

For the day, the index gained 108.26 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 41,898.32 after trading between 41,471.57 and 42,253.42.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial tanked 2.55 percent, while Mega Financial stumbled 2.24 percent, CTBC Financial plunged 3.25 percent, First Financial shed 0.51 percent, Fubon Financial retreated 1.88 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.55 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 0.89 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation skyrocketed 10 percent, Hon Hai Precision sank 0.79 percent, Largan Precision surged 9.82 percent, Catcher Technology slumped 1.20 percent, MediaTek cratered 4.64 percent, Delta Electronics tumbled 2.23 percent, Novatek Microelectronics contracted 1.91 percent, Formosa Plastics dropped 3.25 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surrendered 2.62 percent and Asia Cement eased 0.14 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but trended higher as the session progressed, with the Dow finally peaking into positive territory by the day's end.

The Dow rose 56.09 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,760.56, while the NASDAQ sank 185.92 points or 0.71 percent to end at 26,088.20 and the S&P 500 dipped 11.88 points or 0.16 percent to close at 7,400.96.

An extended surge by the price of crude oil contributed to the early sell-off on Wall Street, with U.S. crude oil futures soaring by more than 4 percent and jumping back above $100 a barrel.

The continued increase by the price of crude oil comes as the U.S. and Iran struggle to reach an agreement to end the war and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The weakness on Wall Street also came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing the fastest annual rate of consumer price growth since May 2023 - making any rate cuts in the near future extremely unlikely.