Taiwan Bourse May Halt Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling more than 650 points or 2.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,510-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are predicted to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index plunged 422.00 points or 1.84 percent to finish at the daily low of 22,510.25 after peaking at 22,845.59.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial sank 0.59 percent, while Mega Financial eased 0.13 percent, CTBC Financial perked 0.16 percent, First Financial dropped 0.92 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.55 percent, E Sun Financial shed 0.56 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tanked 3.27 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation declined 1.51 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.37 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.28 percent, MediaTek stumbled 2.11 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.08 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rose 0.31 percent, Formosa Plastics plunged 4.05 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 5.62 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.24 percent and Hon Hai Precision was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Friday but quickly bounced up into the green and stayed that way for the balance of the session.

The Dow rallied 498.06 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 42,840.26, while the NASDAQ jumped 199.80 points or 1.03 percent to close at 19,572.60 and the S&P 500 gained 63.77 points or 1.09 percent to end at 5,930.85.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent and the NASDAQ slumped 1.8 percent.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of the Commerce Department's report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which came in slower than expected.

As that is the Federal Reserve's preferred reading on consumer price inflation, the slower than expected growth inspired traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the mid-week sell-off.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as the dollar came off two-year highs after soft PCE readings eased concerns about the outlook for interest rate cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures perked $0.08 or about 0.1 percent to $69.46 a barrel. Oil futures shed 2.5 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see November figures for industrial production and unemployment later today; in October, industrial output was up 8.85 percent on year, while the jobless rate came in at 3.38 percent.