Taiwan Bourse Likely Rangebound On Monday

The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 150 points or 1.1 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 12,675-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat, although technology stocks may see further profit taking. The European and U.S. bourse were mixed but little changed on Friday and the Asian markets are tipped to follow suit.

The TSE finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the cement companies, while the financials and technology stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index dipped 15.85 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 12,675.95 after trading between 12,616.68 and 12,701.79.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.38 percent, while Mega Financial lost 0.35 percent, CTBC Financial fell 0.26 percent, Fubon Financial advanced 0.93 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.34 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 1.50 percent, Catcher Technology spiked 1.89 percent, MediaTek shed 0.67 percent, Formosa Plastic perked 0.38 percent, Asia Cement sank 0.94 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.35 percent and First Financial, E Sun Financial, Hon Hai Precision and Largan Precision were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction on Friday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finishing mixed.

The Dow added 131.06 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 27,665.64, while the NASDAQ lost 66.05 points or 0.60 percent to end at 10,853.54 and the S&P 500 rose 1.78 points or 0.05 percent to close at 3,340.97. For the week, the Dow lost 1.7 percent, the NASDAQ sank 4.1 percent and the S&P fell 2.5 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders were reluctant to make significant moves after the substantial volatility in the past several sessions.

Traders may also have been looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy decision scheduled for next Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to leave rates at near-zero levels but could make tweaks to its accompanying statement. The central bank's latest economic projections may also attract some attention.

In economic news, the Labor Department said consumer prices increased more than anticipated in August, as did core CPI.

Crude oil prices were sluggish on Friday but managed to close slightly higher, weighed by worries about the outlook for energy demand due to a continued surge in coronavirus cases. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for October ended up $0.03 or 0.08 percent at $37.33 a barrel. WTI crude oil futures lost 6 percent for the week.