Taiwan Shares Likely To Start Under Water On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, dropping almost 650 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 23,010-point plateau and it's got another soft lead for Monday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative after strong U.S. employment data weighed heavily on the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets ended firmly in the red and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and cement companies, while the technology stocks were up and the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index sank 69.24 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 23,011.86 after trading between 22,989.67 and 23,202.25.

Among the actives, Mega Financial shed 0.39 percent, while CTBC Financial perked 0.16 percent, First Financial fell 0.36 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation sank 0.72 percent, Hon Hai Precision dropped 0.82 percent, Largan Precision surged 5.97 percent, Catcher Technology improved 0.77 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.74 percent, Delta Electronics added 0.60 percent, Novatek Microelectronics skidded 1.01 percent, Formosa Plastics tumbled 1.72 percent, Nan Ya Plastics declined 1.05 percent, Asia Cement lost 0.63 percent and Cathay Financial, Fubon Financial, E Sun Financial and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is bleak as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow plummeted 696.75 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 41,938.45, while the NASDAQ tumbled 317.27 points or 1.63 percent to close at 19,161.63 and the S&P 500 dropped 91.21 points or 1.54 percent to end at 5,827.04.

The weakness on Wall Street was the result of buoyant non-farm payroll data, which raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will likely hold interest rates at current levels or slow down the pace of reductions.

While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, the data is also likely to give the Federal Reserve confidence in its plan to gradually lower interest rates over the coming year.

Oil prices rose sharply on Friday, riding on the Biden Administration's decision to impose additional sanctions on Russia's oil exports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed higher by $2.65 or 3.6 percent at $76.57 a barrel, the highest settlement in three months.