Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Open Under Pressure On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had given up more than 100 points or 0.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 17,350-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start for Wednesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to dwindling hopes for an interest rate cut in the near future. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks, plastics companies and cement issues.

For the day, the index dropped 199.95 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 17,346.87 after trading between 17,337.58 and 17,523.78.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial dropped 1.01 percent, while Mega Financial sank 0.77 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.71 percent, First Financial retreated 1.12 percent, Fubon Financial stumbled 1.40 percent, E Sun Financial declined 1.57 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company skidded 1.02 percent, Largan Precision shed 0.58 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.25 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.93 percent, Delta Electronics tumbled 2.03 percent, Novatek Microelectronics dipped 0.19 percent, Formosa Plastics plunged 2.52 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 2.83 percent, Asia Cement slumped 1.72 percent, Taiwan Cement surrendered 2.23 percent, China Steel tanked 2.33 percent and United Microelectronics Corporation and Hon Hai Precision were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 231.86 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 37,361.12, while the NASDAQ shed 28.41 points or 0.19 percent to close at 14,944.35 and the S&P 500 sank 17.85 points or 0.37 percent to end at 4,765.98.

The weakness on Wall Street came was the result of higher Treasury yields and concerns that the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates anytime soon.

In addition to digesting some hawkish comments from some central bank officials, investors also reacted to disappointing quarterly earnings updates from major companies such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

In economic news, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the Empire State Manufacturing Index plunged to -43.7 in January, the lowest reading since May 2020.

Oil futures settled lower on Tuesday as a stronger dollar and forecasts that weather in the U.S. will be warmer than normal weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended down $0.28 at $72.40 a barrel.