The Taiwan stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes since the end of the six-day winning streak in which it had soared more than 570 points or 4.7 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 13,270-point plateau and it's expected to open higher again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian is upbeat on earnings news and hopes for a coronavirus vaccine. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday as the financial shares and technology stocks were mostly in the green.
For the day, the index added 51.53 points or 0.39 percent to finish at the daily high of 13,273.33 after moving as low as 13,170.12.
Among the actives, Mega Financial collected 0.51 percent, while Fubon Financial gathered 0.22 percent, First Financial perked 0.47 percent, E Sun Financial dipped 0.19 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company advanced 0.87 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation added 0.64 percent, Hon Hai Precision shed 0.61 percent, Largan Precision gained 0.90 percent, Catcher Technology was up 0.26 percent, MediaTek rose 0.30 percent, Formosa Plastic skidded 1.14 percent, Taiwan Cement lost 0.35 percent and Asia Cement, Cathay Financial and CTBC Financial were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks opened higher on Friday and picked up steam as the day progressed, reversing losses from the previous session.
The Dow soared 399.61 points or 1.37 percent to finish at 29,479.81, while the NASDAQ jumped 119.69 points or 1.02 percent to end at 11,829.29 and the S&P 500 climbed 48.14 points or 1.36 percent to close at 3,58515. For the week, the Dow jumped 4.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.6 percent and the S&P climbed 2.2 percent.
The rebound on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from companies like Cisco (CSCO), Disney (DIS) and DraftKings (DKNG), which all beat forecasts.
The markets also seemed to benefit from news that President Donald Trump's campaign continues to face setbacks in efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, eliminating some of the lingering uncertainty about the outcome.
Traders also continue to express optimism about a potential coronavirus vaccine even as new cases in the U.S. spiked to another new record high.
Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns over excess supply and a weak outlook for energy demand due to rising coronavirus cases. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.99 or 2.4 percent at $40.13 a barrel. But for the week, WTI crude oil futures gained 8 percent.
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