Taiwan Bourse May Continue To Spin Its Wheels On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Monday halted the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 500 points or 3 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 16,700-point plateau and now it's expected to be rangebound on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later this week. 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 sharply lower on Monday following losses from the plastic and cement companies, while the technology stocks were mixed and the financials offered support.

For the day, the index tumbled 222.68 points or 1.32 percent to finish at the daily low of 16,698.24 after peaking at 16,893.97.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.54 percent, while Mega Financial improved 0.80 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.40 percent, First Financial rose 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.48 percent, E Sun Financial perked 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plunged 3.23 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tanked 2.31 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.47 percent, Largan Precision climbed 1.20 percent, Catcher Technology advanced 0.82 percent, MediaTek rallied 2.49 percent, Delta Electronics surrendered 2.79 percent, Novatek Microelectronics plummeted 3.56 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.20 percent, Nan Ya Plastics sank 0.58 percent, Asia Cement dipped 0.25 percent, China Steel improved 0.56 percent and Taiwan Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Monday, bounced higher to spend most of the day in the green but faded late to end barely above the unchanged line.

The Dow added 6.06 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 34,624.30, while the NASDAQ rose 1.90 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,710.24 and the S&P 500 perked 3.21 points or 0.07 percent to end at 4,453.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement and the central bank's projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing homebuilder confidence in the U.S. has unexpectedly deteriorated in September.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday, rising for a third straight session on global supply issues and a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $0.71 or 0.8 percent at $91.48 a barrel, the highest settlement this year.