Tech Shares May Weigh On Taiwan Shares

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, stumbling almost 450 points or 2 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 23,285-point plateau and it's expected to open to the downside on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the technology and oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses from the technology and cement companies, while the financials were mixed.

For the day, the index tumbled 279.59 points or 1.19 percent to finish at 23,285.72 after trading between 23,209.53 and 23,376.42.

Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.25 percent, while CTBC Financial and Delta Electronics both shed 0.63 percent, First Financial and Largan Precision both fell 0.36 percent, Fubon Financial perked 0.11 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.17 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tumbled 1.86 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation lost 0.57 percent, Hon Hai Precision plunged 3.53 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.48 percent, MediaTek rose 0.32 percent, Formosa Plastics jumped 1.64 percent, Nan Ya Plastics improved 0.73 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.48 percent and Cathay Financial and Novatek Microelectronics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and finished in similar fashion.

The Dow gained 159.95 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 43,621.16, while the NASDAQ plummeted 260.54 points or 1.35 percent to close at 19,026.39 and the S&P 500 sank 28.00 points or 0.47 percent to end at 5,955.25.

Significant weakness among technology stocks weighed on Wall Street, as reflected the notable slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

Traders continued to express concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade ahead of the release of AI darling Nvidia's (NVDA) fourth quarter results on Wednesday.

The selling pressure also spurred concerns about the outlook for the economy after a Conference Board report showing a significant deterioration by U.S. consumer confidence in February.

Oil futures settled sharply lower on Tuesday as concerns about demand and oversupply in the market weighed and pushed the commodity's prices to the lowest level in about 11 weeks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled lower by $1.77 or at $68.93 a barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will see Q4 numbers for gross domestic product and January results for unemployment later today. GDP is called steady at an annual 1.84 percent; the jobless rate in December was 3.39 percent.