The Taiwan stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day losing streak in which it had retreated more than 50 points or 0.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange finished just above the 8,700-point plateau, although now investors may be tempted to lock in some of those gains when the market opens on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian is mixed with a hint of downside, with the U.S. debt limit debate getting down to the wire. Brokerages and financials are expected to provide support, while technology stocks and airlines figure to decline. The European markets finished higher and the U.S. bourses ended lower - and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.
The TSE finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the technology, financial, paper, cement, food, textile, construction and plastic sectors.
For the day, the index surged 181.60 points or 2.13 percent to finish at the daily high of 8,706.17 after falling as low as 8,612.53 on turnover of 133.69 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the gainers, HTC and Simplo both jumped by the 7 percent daily limit, while Hon Hai Precision climbed 4.60 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is mildly negative as stocks showed a lack of direction on Wednesday after seeing considerable strength in the previous session. The markets shrugged off upbeat earnings news from Apple (AAPL) amid lingering concerns about the U.S. debt limit.
Apple reported earnings that jumped to $7.79 per share on revenues that nearly doubled to $28.6 billion. Analysts had been expecting the company to earn $5.80 per share on revenues of $24.9 billion. Looking ahead, Apple forecast fourth quarter earnings of $5.50 per share on revenues of $25 billion. While the guidance was below analyst estimates, the company typically gives a lowball forecast.
Meanwhile, shares of Yahoo (YHOO) fell by 7.6 percent after the company said its second quarter revenues, excluding traffic acquisition costs, fell 5 percent to $1.08 billion, shy of the $1.11 billion consensus estimates. Yahoo also forecast third quarter revenues, excluding traffic acquisition costs, of $1.04 billion to $1.10 billion, below analyst estimates for revenues of $1.12 billion.
The lackluster performance also came amid continued uncertainty about whether lawmakers in Washington will be able to reach an agreement on raising the debt limit in order to avoid a government default. Tuesday evening, the House voted largely along party lines to pass a Republican bill that slashes government spending, caps future spending, and requires the passage of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget before raising the debt limit.
The bill is highly unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, and President Barack Obama has vowed to veto bill even if it somehow got passed by the upper chamber. Obama has expressed support for a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan from a bipartisan group of Senators, but Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that there is not enough time to act on the proposal before the debt ceiling is reached on August 2.
The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line, eventually ending the session modestly lower. The Dow slipped 15.51 points or 0.1 percent to 12,571.91, the NASDAQ fell 12.29 points or 0.4 percent to 2,814.23 and the S&P 500 edged down 0.89 points or 0.1 percent to 1,325.84.
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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.