Taiwan Shares Due For Profit Taking On Wednesday

The Taiwan stock market has finished higher in four straight sessions, surging almost 1,900 points or 6.3 percent along the way. Now at a record closing high, the Taiwan Stock Exchange sits just above the 30,575-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets continues to be positive, despite several of the regional bourses already at record closing highs. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to at least open in similar fashion.

The TSE finished sharply higher again on Tuesday following gains from the technology and plastics companies, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index jumped 471.26 points or 1.57 percent to finish at the daily high of 30,576.30 after moving as low as 29,933.65.

Among the actives, Cathay Financial lost 0.65 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.62 percent, First Financial improved 0.67 percent, Fubon Financial sank 0.82 percent, E Sun Financial fell 0.44 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped 2.10 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation expanded 1.44 percent, Hon Hai Precision gained 0.64 percent, Largan Precision strengthened 1.58 percent, Catcher Technology shed 0.48 percent, MediaTek tanked 2.62 percent, Delta Electronics vaulted 3.96 percent, Novatek Microelectronics soared 4.13 percent, Formosa Plastics added 0.53 percent, Nan Ya Plastics surged 5.94 percent, Asia Cement tumbled 1.98 percent and CTBC Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened in the green on Tuesday and trended higher through the day, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 484.90 points or 0.99 percent to finish at a record high 49,462.08, while the NASDAQ climbed 151.35 points or 0.65 percent to end at 23,547.17 and the S&P 500 gained 42.77 points or 0.62 percent to close at 6,944.82, also a record.

The Dow benefitted from a sharp increase by shares of Amazon (AMZN) after it announced it is rolling out Alexa.com to Alexa+ Early Access customers in what is seen as an effort to more directly compete with ChatGPT and Gemini.

The continued advance by the broader markets came despite a lack of major catalysts, as traders look ahead to the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days.

The highlight of the week may be the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report on Friday. That data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy meeting later this month.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Tuesday as investors booked profits while analyzing the consequences of Saturday’s swift U.S. military operation in Venezuela on global oil supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was down $1.11 or 1.90 percent at $57.21 per barrel.

Closer to home, Taiwan will release December data for consumer prices later today; in November, overall inflation was up 0.09 percent on month and 1.23 percent on year.