Taiwan Bourse Likely To Return To The Downside

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the long break for the Lunar New Year, the Taiwan stock market had climbed higher in five straight trading days, collecting more than 1,000 points or 4.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,525-point plateau although investors figure to lock in gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over U.S. tariffs that were put in place over the weekend. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Jan. 22 following gains from the technology and plastics companies, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 225.40 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 23,525.41 after trading between 23,472.67 and 23,642.08.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.64 percent, while CTBC Financial rose 0.26 percent, First Financial fell 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial collected 1.42 percent, E Sun Financial perked 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation plummeted 6.40 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.84 percent, Largan Precision lost 0.54 percent, Catcher Technology was up 0.25 percent, Delta Electronics soared 3.80 percent, Novatek Microelectronics climbed 1.16 percent, Formosa Plastics added 0.69 percent, Nan Ya Plastics improved 0.94 percent and Asia Cement, Cathay Financial and MediaTek were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday and stayed that way for much of the day before a late slide saw them all finish in the red.

The Dow tumbled 337.44 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 44.544.66, while the NASDAQ slumped 54.26 points or 0.28 percent to close at 19,627.44 and the S&P 500 sank 30.64 points or 0.50 percent to end at 6,040.53. For the week, the Dow rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ lost 1.6 percent.

Stocks plummeted in afternoon trading after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs will be levied against major U.S. trading partners beginning the following day.

Leavitt said the Trump administration will be implementing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10 percent tariff on China.

The news the tariffs will be implemented led to concerns about higher inflation keeping the Federal Reserve on hold for longer.

Oil futures settled lower Friday amid uncertainty about implementation of Trump's tariff plans on Canada and Mexico, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March fell $0.20 at $72.53 a barrel.