Soft Start Anticipated For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market rebounded on Wednesday, one session after halting the two-day winning streak in which it had gained almost 100 points or 0.4 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchanged now rests above the 22,370-point plateau although it's expected to open in the red on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index rallied 185.66 points or 0.84 percent to finish at the daily high of 22,370.66 after moving as low as 22,108.86.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.63 percent, while Mega Financial slumped 1.13 percent, CTBC Financial improved 0.76 percent, First Financial rose 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial dipped 0.22 percent, E Sun Financial eased 0.18 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 2.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation accelerated 2.22 percent, Hon Hai Precision spiked 2.77 percent, Largan Precision shed 0.50 percent, Catcher Technology lost 0.63 percent, MediaTek sank 0.83 percent, Delta Electronics perked 0.12 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skidded 1.10 percent, Formosa Plastics fell 0.39 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slid 0.33 percent and Asia Cement was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower and mostly remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 159.08 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 41,091.42, while the NASDAQ sank 198.79 points or 1.12 percent to end at 17,556.03 and the S&P 500 lost 33.62 points or 0.60 percent to close at 5,592.18.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected anxiety ahead of the release of market leader Nvidia's (NVDA) fiscal second quarter results after the close of trading.

After the markets closed, Nvidia showed a profit for its second quarter that increased from last year and beat estimates.

Stocks were also under pressure as traders looked ahead to Friday's Commerce Department report on personal income and spending in July, which includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve. While the data is not likely to affect optimism the Fed will lower rates next month, it could impact expectations for how quickly the central bank cuts rates.

Crude oil futures dropped Wednesday on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand, and on data showing a much smaller than expected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October sank $1.01 or 1.34 percent at $74.52 a barrel.