The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the two-day losing streak in which it had declined more than 20 points or 0.3 percent. Now at an eight-week closing high, the Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just below the 9,050-point plateau, and now traders are looking for continued support when the market kicks off trade on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains optimistic following upbeat economic news from the United States and continued solid earnings reports. Gold miners and retail stocks figure to lead the markets higher, although oil companies may be dented by profit taking. The U.S. markets finished mostly higher and the European bourses were mostly so, and the Asian markets also figure to track to the upside.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday on gains from the cement, finance, food, construction, technology and textile sectors.
For the day, the index surged 101.11 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 9,049.25 after trading between 9,012.28 and 9,060.50 on turnover of 132.68 Taiwan dollars.
Among the actives, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. added 2.84 percent, while HTC shed 1.17 percent, Taiwan Cement surged 5.58 percent and Mega Financial jumped 4.79 percent.
Wall Street offers a positive lead as stocks saw some further upside during trading on Wednesday after showing a strong upward move in the previous session. The markets benefited from a positive reaction to the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement and Chairman Ben Bernanke's accompanying news conference.
While stocks showed a lack of direction in morning trading, buying interest emerged as traders digested the Fed's monetary policy announcement. As expected, the Fed once again left interest rates unchanged at near-zero levels and indicated that it will continue its asset purchase program through the end of June. In the statement, the Fed noted that the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace and said overall conditions in the labor market are improving gradually.
Stocks saw further upside as Bernanke held his news conference later in the afternoon, with the Fed Chief predicting that the economic recovery would continue at a moderate pace and reiterating that measures of underlying inflation remain stable despite recent increases in commodities prices. The Fed Chairman also noted that monetary policy actions must be taken with an eye toward future due to the delayed impact of policy changes.
Earlier in the day, the Commerce Department released a report showing that new orders for manufactured durable goods increased by much more than anticipated in March. The report showed that durable goods orders surged up by 2.5 percent in March following a revised 0.7 percent increase in February. Economists had expected orders to increase by 1.9 percent compared to the 0.9 percent drop that had been reported for the previous month.
On the earnings front, aerospace giant Boeing (BA) closed up by 0.8 percent after reporting first quarter earnings of $0.78 per share on revenues of $14.9 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.72 per share on revenues of $15.13 billion. The company also reaffirmed its 2011 guidance.
The major averages closed firmly in positive territory, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ setting a ten-year closing high. The Dow rose 95.59 points or 0.8 percent to 12,690.96, the NASDAQ jumped 22.34 points or 0.8 percent to 2,869.88 and the S&P 500 advanced 8.42 points or 0.6 percent to 1,355.66.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.