Taiwan Stock Market May Take Further Damage On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slumping more than 175 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 12,950-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on rising treasury yields and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the cement companies, gains from the plastics and mixed performances from the financials and technology shares.

For the day, the index fell 30.66 points or 0.24 percent to finish at the daily high of 12,946.10 after falling as low as 12,698.91.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial skidded 1.17 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.69 percent, CTBC Financial weakened 1.01 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.89 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.22 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.51 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation soared 3.40 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.49 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 1.40 percent, Catcher Technology advance 0.88 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.21 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.93 percent, Formosa Plastics gained 0.75 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rallied 2.27 percent, Asia Cement tanked 2.24 percent, Taiwan Cement tumbled 2.22 percent and First Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to hold early gains, heading south by midday and finishing at daily lows.

The Dow slumped 90.22 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 30,333.59, while the NASDAQ shed 65.66 points or 0.61 percent to end at 10,614.84 and the S&P 500 lost 29.38 points or 0.80 percent to close at 3,665.78.

Stocks initially benefited from another batch of upbeat earnings news from big-name companies like IBM Corp. (IBM) and AT&T (T).

Buying interest waned over the course of the morning, however, with a continued surge in treasury yields contributing to the subsequent pullback by the markets. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note extended recent gains, reaching its highest levels in over fourteen years.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continue to drive yields higher, with Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker saying that he expects the Fed to continue raising rates "for a while."

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points in early November, bringing the target range for the federal funds rate to 3.75 to 4.0 percent.

Crude oil futures for November delivery settled higher on their expiration day as traders weighed energy demand and supply positions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November rose $0.43 or 0.5 percent at $85.98 a barrel on the expiration day. But WTI Crude oil futures for December eased to $84.51 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release September data for unemployment later today; in August, the jobless rate was 3.67 percent.