Soft Start Seen For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the five-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 910 points or 3.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 24,240-point plateau and it may spin its wheels again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents later today to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index stumbled 131.92 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 24,238.10 after trading between 24,198.88 and 24,389.51.

Among the actives, Mega Financial rallied 2.03 percent, while First Financial spiked 2.08 percent, E Sun Financial collected 1.32 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company stumbled 2.08 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation perked 0.12 percent, Hon Hai Precision added 0.50 percent, Largan Precision skidded 1.03 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.99 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.46 percent, Delta Electronics sank 0.74 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slumped 0.91 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tanked 2.00 percent, Asia Cement improved 0.76 percent and Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial, Fubon Financial and Formosa Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and spent most of the day in the red before finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 11.01 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 44,911.26, while the NASDAQ dipped 2.47 points or 0.01 percent to close at 21,710.67 and the S&P 500 rose 1.96 points or 0.03 percent to end at a record 6,468.54.

The early weakness on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by much more than expected in the month of July.

The hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data partly offset optimism about a September interest rate cut generated by the consumer price inflation data released earlier this week.

However, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently still indicating a 92.6 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point next month, which helped keep selling pressure relatively subdued.

Crude oil jumped on Thursday ahead of a crucial meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents later today in Alaska to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $1.32 or 2.11 percent at $63.97 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release Q2 numbers for gross domestic product later today; in the previous quarter, GDP was up 7.96 percent on year.