The losing streak has now reach four sessions for the Taiwan stock market, which has dumped more than 650 points or 9 percent while sinking to a fresh closing low since August 29, 2006. The Taiwan Stock Exchange has fallen through support at 6,500 points along the way and could test 6,300 on Friday, analysts say.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is decidedly grim after weaker than expected employment numbers out of the United States rekindled fears over the health of the world's largest economy, while some retail numbers also were disappointing. Another retreat in the price of crude oil was virtually ignored in the stampede to the downside, and it also contributed to weakness among some of the commodity plays. That condemned the U.S. markets to a sharply lower finish, and the Asian markets are forecast to follow suit.
The TSE finished sharply lower on Thursday with losses across the board as transport, tourism, food, textile, construction, financial, technology and steel stocks all saw significant declines. Commodities and shipping companies also finished lower.
For the day, the index dumped 172.30 points or 2.62 percent to close at 6,412.63 after trading between 6,603.10 and 6,384.14 on turnover of 91.20 billion Taiwan dollars. There were 1,681 decliners and 339 gainers, with 353 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the decliners, Uni-President Enterprises, U-Ming Marine, Far Eastern Textile, Mega Financial and Formosa International Hotels all were limit-down 7 percent, while China Steel lost 0.85 percent, TSMC fell 2.91 percent, UMC lost 2.34 percent, Fubon Financial Holding was down 3.64 percent, Cathay Real Estate retreated 6.8 percent and HTC Corp fell 4.83 percent.
Wall Street provides a sharply negative lead as stocks turned in a dismal performance on Thursday after a pair of disappointing employment reports raised concerns about the health of the economy. Sluggish retail sales numbers also gave investors cause for concern, sending the Dow Jones down more than 340 points.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) set a negative tone before the markets opened when it released its report on employment in the private sector, showing a bigger than expected loss of jobs in August. The ADP report showed that non-farm private sector employment fell by 33,000 jobs in August following a revised increase of 1,000 jobs in July. Economists had expected employment to fall by 30,000 jobs compared to the increase of 9,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Later, the Labor Department said that jobless claims in the week ended August 30 rose to 444,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 429,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to fall to 420,000 from the 425,000 from the originally reported for the previous week. Weakness in the retail sector also made investors jittery after most retailers reported sluggish same store sales for the month of August.
Adding to the negative sentiment, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher stood by his gloomy economic forecast Thursday, calling for sluggish economic growth "for some time" into 2009 before the economy gets back on track. He also cautioned that there is a distinct risk that inflation will become embedded and be more than a "one-off" event.
The major averages saw further selling pressure in the final hour of trading, with the Nasdaq ended the session at its intraday low. With the declines, the majors closed at their worst levels in well over a month. The Dow closed down 344.65 points or 3 percent at 11,188.23, the Nasdaq closed down 74.69 points or 3.2 percent at 2,259.04 and the S&P 500 closed down 38.16 points or 3 percent at 1,236.82.
In economic news, Taiwan will on Friday afternoon provide August numbers for inflation, WPI and foreign reserves. Inflation is expected to come in at 6.48 percent on year, up from the 5.92 percent annual expansion in July. WPI is projected to increase by 13.56 percent on year, up from the annual 11.49 percent jump in the previous month. Foreign reserves are expected to show a surplus of $295.8 billion, up from $290.9 billion a month earlier.
In corporate news, AU Optronics Corp has approved a proposal to invest $20 million for a new subsidiary called BriView Electronics Corp in China. The new unit will make liquid crystal display (LCD)-related products and components, AU said in a filing to the stock exchange.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.