Taiwan Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 150 points or 0.8 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 18,750-point plateau although it's likely to run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continued profit taking and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday as gains from the financial shares and technology stocks were tempered by weakness from the plastics.

For the day, the index spiked 117.36 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 18,753.16 after trading between 18,610.21 and 18,756.33.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.22 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.52 percent, CTBC Financial climbed 1.05 percent, First Financial improved 0.74 percent, Fubon Financial gained 0.61 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.20 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 1.33 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rose 0.20 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.49 percent, Largan Precision soared 2.71 percent, Catcher Technology gathered 0.25 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.97 percent, Delta Electronics perked 0.17 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skyrocketed 6.73 percent, Formosa Plastics eased 0.14 percent, Nan Ya Plastics lost 0.49 percent, Asia Cement increased 0.12 percent, Taiwan Cement shed 0.46 percent and China Steel slumped 0.39 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained that way, finishing solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 64.19 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 38,563.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.87 points or 0.92 percent to end at 15,630.78 and the S&P 500 sank 30.06 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,975.51.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a strong gain by Walmart (WMT) helped limit the downside for the Dow, with the retail giant surging by 3.2 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates and announcing a deal to acquire TV maker Vizio (VZIO) for $2.3 billion.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday, reflecting ongoing concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery slumped $1.01 to $78.18 a barrel, while the more actively traded crude for April delivery tumbled $1.42 to $77.04 a barrel.