The Taiwan stock market has finished higher now in back-to-back sessions, surging nearly 320 points or 3.5 percent in the process. The Taiwan Stock Exchange closed just shy of the 8,960-point plateau, and now investors are looking for continued support when the market kicks off trade on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains upbeat on continued solid earnings news. Technology stocks and financials are expected to provide support, along with the oil companies - while property stocks are likely to see mild contraction. The European and U.S. markets finished mostly higher, and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.
The TSE finished sharply higher again on Thursday on gains from the financial, chemical, textile, food, paper, construction, technology and cement sectors.
For the day, the index jumped 144.37 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 8,957.65 after trading between 8,892.06 and 8,992.08 on turnover of 158.89 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the gainers, AsusTek added 2.90 percent, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. climbed 1.29 percent, Chang Hwa Bank surged 4.12 percent and Cathay Financial jumped 2.08 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks saw some further upside during trading on Thursday after staging a substantial rally in the previous session. The markets once again benefited from upbeat earnings news, although some disappointing economic data helped to limit the upside going into the long weekend.
The strength was partly due to the release of much better than expected quarterly results from Apple (AAPL), with the iPad and iPhone maker rising by 2.4 percent. Apple reported second quarter earnings of $6.40 per share on net sales of $24.67 billion compared to earnings of $3.33 per share on net sales of $13.50 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $5.36 per share on $23.34 billion in net sales.
Insurance giant and Dow component Travelers (TRV) also turned in a strong performance on the day after reporting stronger than expected first quarter earnings growth. Honeywell (HON), Qualcomm (QCOM), and DuPont (DD) also moved higher in reaction to their quarterly results.
Meanwhile, shares of General Electric (GE) ended the day lower even though the company reported first quarter adjusted earnings of $0.33 per share on revenues of $38.45 billion compared to analyst estimates for earnings of $0.28 per share on revenues of $34.64 billion. GE also raised its quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.15 per share effective in the third quarter.
However, disappointing economic data also helped to limit the upside for the markets, with the Labor Department releasing a report showing a smaller than expected drop in weekly jobless claims. Also, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve released a separate report showing a much bigger than expected slowdown in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in April.
The major averages moved higher going into the close, ending near their best levels of the day. The Dow rose 52.45 points or 0.4 percent to 12,505.99, the NASDAQ climbed 17.56 points or 0.6 percent to 2,820.16 and the S&P 500 advanced 7.02 points or 0.5 percent at 1,337.38. The major averages all moved higher for the holiday-shortened week, with the Dow ending the day at a nearly three-year closing high. The Dow and the S&P 500 both rose 1.3 percent for the week, while the NASDAQ jumped 2 percent.
In economic news, Taiwan is on Friday scheduled to release March figures for unemployment. The unemployment rate is expected to come in at a seasonally adjusted 4.53 percent, easing from 4.59 percent in February.
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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.