FX.co ★ Little Movement Expected For Taiwan Stock Market

The Taiwan stock market dipped once again on Thursday, falling just below the 20,150-point mark. This comes a day after the market broke a two-day losing streak where it dropped over 100 points, or 0.5 percent. Odds are that these numbers will stay consistent this Friday.

Despite being slightly higher on European markets and fluctuating on U.S. bourses, the Asian markets are forecasted to maintain a balance ahead of the release of crucial U.S. inflation data.

On Thursday, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) closed with slight losses due largely to the financial industries and plastic stocks underperforming, while the technology companies' performance was varied.

Breaking it down: the TSE fell by 53.57 points or 0.27 percent, closing out at 20,146.55 after varying between 20,065.93 and 20,222.20. Companies such as Cathay Financial, Mega Financial, CTBC Financial, and First Financial all saw drops in their stock ranging from 0.10 percent to 0.72 percent.

Even with the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on inflation set to release later on Friday, prospects for interest rates hang in the balance. Market reactions to these crucial economic indicators will have to wait until Monday due to the closure of markets for Good Friday.

The Dow saw an increase of 47.29 points, or 0.12 percent, reaching 39,807.37, while NASDAQ dropped a modest 20.06 points at 16,379.46. The S&P 500 experienced a slight rise of 5.86 points, finishing at 5,254.35. The weekly figures for the holiday-shortened week showed that the Dow gained 0.8 percent, the S&P grew by 0.4 percent, and NASDAQ fell by 0.3 percent.

The U.S. economy showed signs of resilience with the Labor Department announcing a marginal dip in first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week. According to the Commerce Department, there was also better-than-expected growth in the U.S. economy during the last quarter of 2023. On top of that, there was a rebound in pending home sales in February, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Increased upward pressure on oil futures, boosted by depleting supply levels due to OPEC's production cuts and ongoing attacks by Ukraine on Russian oil facilities, led to a spike in West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May. Closing at a solid $83.17 a barrel, WTI futures for the week were up by 3.15 percent.