Taiwan Shares Poised To Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 340 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 15,070-point plateau although it's due for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher, with upside limited by concern over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the cement companies and mixed performances from the financials and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dipped 26.70 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 15,069.19 after trading between 15,053.52 and 15,183.96.

Among the actives, Mega Financial fell 0.28 percent, while CTBC Financial declined 1.47 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.17 percent, First Financial collected 0.38 percent, E Sun Financial added 0.36 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dipped 0.20 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.25 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.45 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.52 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.12 percent, MediaTek retreated 1.33 percent, Delta Electronics gained 0.38 percent, Asia Cement eased 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.25 percent and Cathay Financial, Formosa Plastics and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild upside as the major averages shook off early weakness and moved quickly to the upside, although they finished well off of the day's highs.

The Dow added 59.64 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 32,969.23, while the NASDAQ gained 50.23 points or 0.41 percent to end at 12,431.53 and the S&P 500 rose 12.04 points or 0.29 percent to close at 4,140.77.

The early weakness followed comments from Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who reiterated the U.S. central bank's commitment to bringing inflation under control through tighter monetary policy.

Investors also looked ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole economic symposium later this week for clues about the bank's outlook for the economy and interest rates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said that new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were virtually unchanged in July. Also, the rate of decline for pending home sales slowed from the previous month.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday, supported by data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week, as well as news that OPEC may cut production to support prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September climbed $1.15 or 1.2 percent at $94.89 a barrel.