The Taiwan stock market has climbed higher in five straight sessions, gathering more than 420 points or 3.4 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 12,975-point plateau although it's expected to spin its wheels on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian is soft, with profit taking expected following last week's election run in the United States, while varying earnings news and oil process may lend an air of volatility. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financials, weakness from the cement companies and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.
For the day, the index gained 54.73 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 12,973.53 after trading between 12,927.30 and 12,999.16.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial was up 0.26 percent, while Mega Financial collected 0.35 percent, CTBC Financial spiked 1.91 percent, Fubon Financial gathered 0.72 percent, First Financial increased 0.48 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.00 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company added 0.33 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation eased 0.16 percent, Hon Hai Precision advanced 0.89 percent, Largan Precision tumbled 1.72 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.54 percent, MediaTek gained 0.57 percent, Asia Cement fell 0.36 percent, Taiwan Cement slid 0.49 percent and Formosa Plastic and Far Eastern were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as stocks opened sharply lower on Friday but rallied to finish largely unchanged.
The Dow shed 66.80 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 28,323.40, while the NASDAQ rose 4.33 points or 0.04 percent to end at 11,895.23 and the S&P 500 eased 1.01 points or 0.03 percent to close at 3,509.44. For the week, The Dow jumped 6.9 percent, the NASDAQ surged 9 percent and the S&P spiked 7.1 percent.
The early weakness on Wall Street was partly due to profit taking following the strong upward move seen over the past several sessions.
The early selling pressure was offset by a closely watched report from the Labor Department showing stronger than expected job growth in October, while the jobless rate fell 1 percent.
The markets were also reacting to the continued uncertainty about the U.S. presidential election - although that was cleared up on Saturday when Democrat Joe Biden was projected as the winner.
Crude oil futures ended sharply lower on Friday, weighed down by rising concerns over outlook for energy demand due to the continued global surge in coronavirus cases. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $1.65 or 4.3 percent at $37.14 a barrel.
Closer to home, Taiwan will release October figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to sink 2.5 percent on year after sliding 5.4 percent in September. Exports are called higher by an annual 4.2 percent after climbing 9.4 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $5 billion, down from $7.14 billion a month earlier.
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