Taiwan Stock Market May Be Stuck In Neutral On Thursday

The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, accelerating more than 700 points or 3.5 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 20,130-point plateau although the rally may stall on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following strong gains from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index rallied 532.46 points or 2.72 percent to finish at 20,131.74 after trading between 19,770.46 and 20,165.77.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial advanced 1.03 percent, while Mega Financial retreated 1.63 percent, CTBC Financial slid 0.32 percent, First Financial perked 0.18 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.75 percent, E Sun Financial shed 0.55 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 3.85 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation strengthened 3.08 percent, Hon Hai Precision skyrocketed 8.33 percent, Largan Precision climbed 2.81 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.23 percent, MediaTek spiked 3.91 percent, Delta Electronics improved 2.18 percent, Novatek Microelectronics rallied 3.09 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 0.43 percent, Nan Ya Plastics sank 0.53 percent, Asia Cement skidded 1.05 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.62 percent and China Steel was down 0.40 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and flat and basically ended the same way.

The Dow shed 42.77 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 38,460.92, while the NASDAQ rose 16.11 points or 0.10 percent to close at 15,712.75 and the S&P 500 perked 1.08 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,071.63.

A positive reaction to the latest corporate earnings news limited any downside on Wall Street, thanks to the likes of Tesla (TSLA), Texas Instruments (TXN), Visa (V) and Mattel (MAT).

Buying interest waned soon thereafter, however, with traders still worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will look for clues about the possibility of future rate cuts.

Oil prices dropped on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and on easing tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $0.55 at $82.81 a barrel.

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