Higher Open Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 310 points or 1.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,200-point plateau although it figures to see renewed if mild support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat thanks to ongoing tariff concerns. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the plastics and cement companies, while the financials and technology stocks were also mostly in the red.

For the day, the index slumped 168.20 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 22,209.10 after trading between 22,200.23 and 22,366.95.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial retreated 1.21 percent, while Mega Financial fell 0.38 percent, CTBC Financial and Fubon Financial both perked 0.16 percent, First Financial sank 0.72 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.17 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined 1.32 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation slid 0.33 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.60 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.60 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.48 percent, MediaTek was down 0.34 percent, Delta Electronics gained 0.64 percent, Novatek Microelectronics improved 0.54 percent, Formosa Plastics plummeted 4.29 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plunged 4.63 percent and Asia Cement dropped 0.88 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive as the major averages spent almost all of Friday in the red before peeking into the green just before the close.

The Dow added 32.05 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 41,985.35, while the NASDAQ gained 92.45 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,784.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.67 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,667.56.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.2 percent, while the S&P and the NASDAQ both ended four-week losing streaks, rising by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook along with rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Friday on geopolitical tensions after new U.S. sanctions against a Chinese refinery that purchased Iranian oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery climbed $0.23 or 0.3 percent to $68.30 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide February numbers for unemployment later today; in January, the jobless rate was 3.37 percent.