Taiwan Bourse May Spin Its Wheels On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, gathering more than 625 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just beneath the 28,000-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The TSE finished modestly higher again on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index improved 185.19 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 27,980.89 after trading between 27,738.50 and 27,980.89.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.43 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.74 percent, First Financial improved 0.72 percent, Fubon Financial rose 0.21 percent, E Sun Financial lost 0.49 percent. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company climbed 1.04 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation jumped 1.88 percent, Hon Hai Precision expanded 1.09 percent, Largan Precision dropped 0.93 percent, Catcher Technology fell 0.25 percent, MediaTek strengthened 1.42 percent, Delta Electronics stumbled 2.00 percent, Novatek Microelectronics added 0.65 percent, Formosa Plastics slumped 1.52 percent, Asia Cement sank 1.16 percent and CTBC Financial and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and bounced up and down all day but always remained in the green.

The Dow added 104.05 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 47,954.99, while the NASDAQ gained 72.99 points or 0.31 percent to close at 23,578.13 and the S&P 500 rose 13.28 points or 0.19 percent to end at 6,870.40.

For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.9 percent, the Dow climbed 0.5 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The modest strength on Wall Street followed the release of closely watched consumer price inflation data that was in line with estimates, reinforcing recent optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating an 87.2 percent chance the Fed will lower interest rates by another quarter point this week.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Friday on persistent geopolitical tension due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-Venezuela standoff. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was up $0.35 or 0.59 percent at $60.02 per barrel.