Mild Consolidation Expected For Taiwan Shares

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, sinking more than 215 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 30,360-point plateau and it may remain stuck in neutral on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity ahead of key U.S. employment data. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and roughly flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Thursday as losses from the technology stocks were mitigated by support from the plastics companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index shed 74.92 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 30,360.55 after trading between 30,268.36 and 30,593.49.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial collected 0.50 percent, while Mega Financial rose 0.25 percent, First Financial fell 0.34 percent, Fubon Financial climbed 0.94 percent, E Sun Financial lumped 1.35 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company gained 0.60 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.40 percent, Hon Hai Precision cratered 3.77 percent, Largan Precision retreated 2.94 percent, Catcher Technology dropped 0.96 percent, MediaTek stumbled 3.02 percent, Delta Electronics plummeted 12.90 percent, Novatek Microelectronics tanked 4.23 percent, Formosa Plastics vaulted 2.58 percent, Nan Ya Plastics soared 3.55 percent, Asia Cement advanced 0.82 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and spent much of the day on opposite sides of the line and ending the same way.

The Dow climbed 270.03 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 49,266.11, while the NASDAQ sank 104.26 points or 0.44 percent to end at 23,480.02 and the S&P 500 perked 0.51 points or 0.01 percent to close at 6,921.44.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its January 27-28 meeting but is seen as likely to cut rates by at least another quarter point in the coming months.

Ahead of the monthly jobs report, a report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged up slightly less than expected last week.

Crude oil prices skyrocketed on Thursday as data showed a decline in the U.S. crude inventories, offsetting global oversupply concerns and supporting prices. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was up $1.70 or 3.04 percent at $57.69 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release December data for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in November, imports surged 45.0 percent on year and exports rallied 56.0 percent for a trade surplus of $16.09 billion.