Taiwan Stocks Market May Extend Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 475 points or 2.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 16,620-point plateau and it may take further damage on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected ahead of key jobs data from the United States later in the week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics.

For the day, the index dipped 13.56 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 16,622.74 after trading between 16,579.13 and 16,681.19.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.56 percent, while CTBC Financial collected 0.41 percent, First Financial rose 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.49 percent, E Sun Financial added 0.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.35 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation improved 0.78 percent, Hon Hai Precision strengthened 1.42 percent, Largan Precision tanked 2.17 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.26 percent, MediaTek soared 3.39 percent, Delta Electronics shed 0.48 percent, Formosa Plastics was up 0.21 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 0.38 percent, Asia Cement gathered 0.46 percent, Taiwan Cement increased 0.39 percent, China Steel eased 0.17 percent and Novatek Microelectronics and Mega Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is not encouraging as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but started to trend lower as the day progressed, with the Dow finishing in the red.

The Dow shed 50.56 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 33,042.78, while the NASDAQ rose 41.74 points or 0.32 percent to close at 13,017.43 and the S&P 500 perked 0.07 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,205.52.

The early strength on Wall Street materialized on the weekend's news that an agreement had been reached to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default by the U.S. government.

Much of that had already been priced in, however, and stocks faded ahead of Friday's jobs report amid concerns about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Conference Board said consumer confidence in the U.S. saw a modest decrease from an upwardly revised level in May.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, weighed down by doubts about China's economic recovery and uncertainty over whether the Congress will pass the debt deal this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $69.46 a barrel.