Taiwan Shares Expected To Return To The Downside On Friday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of two days off because of Typhoon Krathon, the Taiwan stock market had ended the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 630 points or 2.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,390-point plateau and it's looking at a soft start upon its return on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index gained 165.85 points or 0.75 percent to finish at 22,390.39 after trading between 22,311.33 and 22,446.86.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.30 percent, while Mega Financial added 0.38 percent, CTBC Financial advanced 0.87 percent, First Financial lost 0.55 percent, Fubon Financial improved 0.33 percent, E Sun Financial rallied 2.14 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 1.57 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation and Novatek Microelectronics both dipped 0.19 percent, Hon Hai Precision fell 0.27 percent, Largan Precision soared 3.35 percent, Catcher Technology strengthened 1.27 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.98 percent, Delta Electronics climbed 1.05 percent, Formosa Plastics dropped 0.93 percent, Nan Ya Plastics rose 0.22 percent and Asia Cement shed 0.63 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and largely remained in the red throughout the day, closing with modest losses.

The Dow dropped 184.93 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 42,011.59, while the NASDAQ eased 6.65 points or 0.04 percent to close at 17,918.47 and the S&P 500 fell 9.60 points or 0.17 percent to end at 5,699.94.

The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Labor Department's highly anticipated monthly jobs report on Friday.

The data could impact the outlook for the U.S. economy as well as expectations regarding how aggressively the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in the Middle East, where an escalating conflict has contributed to a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.

Oil prices moved up sharply on Thursday thanks to tensions in the Middle East, with the war between Israel and Iran raising concerns about supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up $3.61 or 5.2 percent at $73.71 a barrel.