Lower Open Called For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 250 points or 1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 24,350-point plateau and it may be stuck in neutral in again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were up and the Asian bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the plastics and cement companies, while the financials and technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index stumbled 129.02 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 24,353.50 after trading between 24,324.29 and 24,551.42.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial eased 0.16 percent, while Mega Financial skidded 1.17 percent, First Financial collected 0.34 percent, Fubon Financial slumped 1.01 percent, E Sun Financial shed 0.44 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.42 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.61 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.95 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.63 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.25 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.42 percent, Delta Electronics plunged 3.92 percent, Novatek Microelectronics advanced 0.82 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.97 percent, Nan Ya Plastics cratered 8.86 percent, Asia Cement stumbled 2.17 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and spent most of the day in the red, although the Dow peeked up above the line at the end.

The Dow rose 10.45 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 44,922.27, while the NASDAQ tumbled 314.82 points or 1.46 percent to end at 21,314.95 and the S&P 500 sank 37.78 points or 0.59 percent to close at 6,411.37.

The slump by the NASDAQ came amid weakness in the tech sector, with shares of Nvidia (NVDA) plunging by 3.5 percent following reports that the company is developing a new AI chip for China.

On the other hand, the Dow benefitted from a surge by shares of Home Depot (HD), as the home improvement retailer shot up 3.2 percent after the company maintained its full-year guidance despite missing on Q2 results.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting later today and the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that gets underway on Thursday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at the symposium on Friday, with remarks potentially impacting the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil declined on Tuesday amid supply side concerns as OPEC continues to unwind 2.2 million barrels per day in voluntary cuts by its member nations. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.07 or 1.69 percent at $62.35 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see July numbers for export orders and Q2 data for current account later today. In June, export orders jumped 24.6 percent on year, while the current account surplus was $30.23 billion in Q1.