Soft Start Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, advancing nearly 1,300 points or 4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 33,070-point plateau although it may tick lower on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the release of U.S. employment data later today. The European and U.S. markets finished mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The TSE finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the plastics companies were soft.

For the day, the index spiked 668.35 points or 2.06 percent to finish at the daily high of 33,072.97 after trading as low as 32,439.71.

Among the actives, CTBC Financial dipped 0.16 percent, while First Financial collected 0.86 percent, Fubon Financial increased 0.75 percent, E Sun Financial rose 0.30 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company rallied 3.58 percent, Hon Hai Precision climbed 1.14 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 1.53 percent, Catcher Technology skidded 1.02 percent, MediaTek improved 0.82 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.42 percent, Novatek Microelectronics vaulted 1.34 percent, Formosa Plastics tanked 2.68 percent, Nan Ya Plastics plummeted 6.67 percent, Asia Cement perked 0.14 percent and United Microelectronics Corporation, Cathay Financial and Mega Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday, hugged both sides of the line all day and then finished little changed.

The Dow rose 52.27 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 50,188.14, while the NASDAQ slumped 136.20 points or 0.59 percent to end at 23,102.47 and the S&P 500 sank 23.01 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,941.81.

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

The report, which was delayed due to the brief government shutdown last week, is expected to show employment climbed by 70,000 jobs in January after rising by 50,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a Commerce Department report showing retail sales in the U.S. were unexpectedly flat in December. A separate report from the Labor Department showed import prices in the U.S. crept up in line with estimates in December.

Crude oil prices ticked lower on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $0.12 of 0.19 percent to $64.24 per barrel.