Taiwan Bourse May Return Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the five-day break for the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, the Taiwan stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions - sinking almost 85 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 10,820-point plateau and it's looking at another soft lead for Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets if broadly negative thanks to escalating concerns over a trade war between the United States and China. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and steel companies.

For the day, the index sank 66.74 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 10,821.53 after trading between 10,775.45 and 10,837.54 on turnover of 115.78 billion Taiwan dollars.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial shed 0.95 percent, while Fubon Financial fell 0.40 percent, Mega Financial lost 0.39 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company dropped 1.01 percent, Hon Hai Precision skidded 1.02 percent, Innolux retreated 1.14 percent, Largan Precision was unchanged, United Microelectronics dipped 0.32 percent, China Steel slid 0.64 percent and Taiwan Steel Union tumbled 2.23 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as stocks moved sharply lower on Friday when trade war concerns resurfaced. After closing higher for three straight days, the major averages showed a substantial move back to the downside.

The Dow shed 572.46 points or 2.34 percent to 23,932.76, while the NASDAQ lost 161.44 points or 2.28 percent to 6,915.11 and the S&P 500 fell 58.37 points or 2.19 percent to 2,604.47. For the week, the NASDAQ lost 2.1 percent, the S&P slumped 1.4 percent and the Dow slid 0.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid renewed trade war concerns after President Donald Trump threatened to impose $100 billion of additional tariffs on Chinese imports.

Negative sentiment was also when the Labor Department said U.S. job growth slowed much more than anticipated in March., while the jobless rate held steady when it was expected to fall.

Stocks saw further downside when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that further gradual increases in interest rates would best promote the Fed's goals of maximum employment and stable prices, eschewing a slower pace of rate hikes.

Crude oil futures fell sharply Friday along with U.S. stocks. The threat of a trade war with China has impacted the U.S. economic outlook, and created demand worries in the oil patch. Nymex May oil futures fell $1.48 to $63.54 a barrel, down 2.3 percent.