Losing Streak May Continue For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, dropping more than 170 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just shy of the 22,100-point plateau and it may take further damage on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on concerns over the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics.

For the day, the index sank 142.89 points or 0.64 percent to finish at the daily low of 22,092.21 after moving as high as 22,303.50.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial slumped 1.55 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.26 percent, CTBC Financial lost 0.45 percent, First Financial sank 0.92 percent, Fubon Financial eased 0.32 percent, E Sun Financial stumbled 1.60 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 0.84 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation shed 0.54 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.09 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.76 percent, Catcher Technology slipped 0.42 percent, MediaTek fell 0.41 percent, Delta Electronics shed 0.51 percent, Novatek Microelectronics retreated 1.48 percent, Formosa Plastics declined 1.39 percent, Nan Ya Plastics tanked 2.25 percent and Asia Cement was down 0.11 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened firmly in the red and only got worse as the day progressed.

The Dow plunged 626.15 points or 1.51 percent to finish at 40,836.93, while the NASDAQ plummeted 577.33 points or 3.26 percent to close at 17,136.30 and the S&P 500 tumbled 119.47 points or 2.12 percent to end at 5,528.93.

The sell-off on Wall Street came after the Institute for Supply Management noted continued decline by U.S. manufacturing activity in August. A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a modest decrease by U.S. construction spending in July.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as some traders look to cash in on the previous session's gains amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is almost universally expected to lower rates at its next meeting later this month, but there is some disagreement about the pace of rate cuts. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, there is a 63.0 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut later this month and a 37.0 percent chance of a half-point rate cut.

Oil prices fell sharply to a nine-month low on Tuesday on prospects of oversupply from OPEC weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $70.34 a barrel.