Taiwan Stock Market Due For Support On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, tumbling almost 700 points or 3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,860-point plateau and it may see mild upside on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on a mixed outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index retreated 121.54 points or 0.53 percent to finish at the daily low of 22,860.23 after peaking at 23,046.47.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial both perked 0.17 percent, while First Financial and Mega Financial both collected 0.38 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.76 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company declined 1.43 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation and Asia Cement both shed 0.65 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.23 percent, Largan Precision soared 4.43 percent, Catcher Technology dipped 0.23 percent, MediaTek sank 0.79 percent, Delta Electronics dropped 0.88 percent, Novatek Microelectronics jumped 1.97 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.44 percent and Nan Ya Plastics slumped 0.98 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday but quickly faded and wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 47.21 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 43,958.19, while the NASDAQ sank 50.66 points or 0.26 percent to close at 19,230.74 and the S&P 500 perked 1.39 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,985.38.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came following the release of closely watched consumer price inflation data that came in line with estimates.

While the data increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue lowering interest rates next month, inflation remaining somewhat sticky led to uncertainty about the likelihood of future rate cuts.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 82.3 percent chance of another quarter point rate cut in December but a 60.2 percent chance rates will then be left unchanged in January.

Oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday thanks to short covering after recent sharp losses, while a firm dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December closed up $0.31 or 0.46 percent at $68.43 a barrel.