Taiwan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in two consecutive trading days, improving nearly 480 points or 3.4 percent in that span. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 14,460-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with easing recession concerns offset by the worsening outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financials, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index climbed 128.23 points or 0.89 percent to finish at 14,464.53 after trading between 14,373.84 and 14,552.42.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.55 percent, while Mega Financial dipped 0.28 percent, CTBC Financial collected 0.63 percent, Fubon Financial slid 0.51 percent, First Financial eased 0.20 percent, E Sun Financial skidded 1.05 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 2.08 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.38 percent, Hon Hai Precision retreated 1.45 percent, Largan Precision shed 0.53 percent, Catcher Technology advanced 0.94 percent, MediaTek spiked 2.36 percent, Delta Electronics soared 2.94 percent, Formosa Plastics added 0.47 percent, Taiwan Cement was down 0.24 percent and Nan Ya Plastics and Asia Cement were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 46.45 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 31,338.15m while the NASDAQ rose 14.01 points or 0.12 percent to end at 11,635.31 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.24 points or 0.08 percent to close at 3,899.38. For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.6 percent, the S&P jumped 1.9 percent and the Dow rose 0.8 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing stronger than expected U.S. job growth in June.

The data eased worries about the economy, but it also added to concerns about aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, gaining for a second straight day after the stronger than expected jobs report. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August jumped $2.06 or 2 percent at $104.79 a barrel, but WTI crude futures shed more than 3 percent in the week.