Taiwan Shares May See Mild Rebound On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 510 points or 2.2 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,600-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets murky on an uncertain outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were slightly up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares and technology stocks.

For the day, the index sank 62.03 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 23,604.08 after trading between 23,550.99 and 23,683.46.

Among the actives, Mega Financial eased 0.13 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.32 percent, First Financial skidded 1.07 percent, Fubon Financial stumbled 2.01 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.91 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation rallied 1.43 percent, Hon Hai Precision fell 0.27 percent, Largan Precision dipped 0.18 percent, MediaTek rose 0.33 percent, Delta Electronics perked 0.26 percent, Novatek Microelectronics was down 0.18 percent, Formosa Plastics jumped 1.69 percent, Nan Ya Plastics spiked 1.97 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.72 percent and Cathay Financial, E Sun Financial and Catcher Technology were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday but trended upward throughout the day, finally ending mildly to the upside.

The Dow gained 71.25 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 44,627.59, while the NASDAQ rose 14.99 points or 0.07 percent to close at 20,056.25 and the S&P 500 perked 14.57 points or 0.24 percent to end at 6,144.15.

The rebound also came even though the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting revealed that officials want to see further progress on inflation before they consider resuming lowering interest rates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said housing starts pulled back by more than expected in January.

Oil futures settled higher Wednesday, extending gains from previous session amid concerns about the outlook for supplies after a recent drone attack by Ukraine on a Russian pumping station. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.40 or 0.56 percent at $72.25 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will provide January data for export orders and Q4 data for current account later today. In December, export orders jumped 20.8 percent on year. In the third quarter of 2024, the current account surplus was $27.48 billion.