Renewed Consolidation Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market bounced higher again on Monday, one session after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 1,000 points or 4.3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 23,275-point plateau although it's likely to head south again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on weakness from the technology stocks and ahead of key U.S. inflation data later in the week. 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 higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology and plastics sectors.

For the day, the index improved 79.98 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 23,273.25 after trading between 23,172.22 and 23,325.99.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.73 percent, while First Financial rose 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 0.94 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 1.26 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.52 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.81 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.25 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.53 percent, Delta Electronics improved 1.50 percent, Novatek Microelectronics eased 0.20 percent, Formosa Plastics perked 0.12 percent, Nan Ya Plastics stumbled 1.60 percent, Asia Cement lost 0.47 percent and Mega Financial, CTBC Financial, Fubon Financial and E Sun Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way for the balance of the session.

The Dow dropped 240.59 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 44,401.93, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.0.8 points or 0.62 percent to end at 19,736.69 and the S&P 500 sank 37.42 points or 0.61 percent to close at 6,052.85.

A slump by shares of Nvidia (NVDA) weighed on the markets, with the AI darling tumbling by 2.6 percent amid news a Chinese regulator has launched an investigation into whether the chipmaker violated antimonopoly laws.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched U.S. inflation data later in the week.

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower rates by another 25 basis points next week, there is some uncertainty about whether the central bank will continue cutting rates next year.

Oil prices climbed higher on geopolitical tensions and optimism that the Chinese central bank will loosen its monetary policy to boost economic growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.17 or 1.74 percent at $68.37 a barrel.