The Taiwan stock market on Monday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 450 points or 2.6 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 17,235-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian is soft, with technology stocks expected to lead the markets lower - although crude oil prices offer mild support. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were negative and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished slightly lower on Monday as losses from the technology stocks were mitigated by support from the financial shares and the cement companies.
For the day, the index lost 49.39 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 17,235.61 after trading between 17,188.15 and 17,304.47.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial soared 5.63 percent, while Mega Financial climbed 1.23 percent, CTBC Financial soared 3.68 percent, Fubon Financial skyrocketed 8.19 percent, First Financial jumped 1.33 percent, E Sun Financial collected 0.56 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company retreated 1.67 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation tumbled 2.78 percent, Hon Hai Precision tanked 3.83 percent, Largan Precision surrendered 3.49 percent, Catcher Technology rose 0.26 percent, MediaTek plummeted 7.64 percent, Formosa Plastic advanced 0.95 percent, Asia Cement gathered 1.19 percent and Taiwan Cement perked 1.15 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all ended up in the red as the session progressed.
The Dow fell 34.94 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 34,742.82, while the NASDAQ plummeted 350.38 points or 2.55 percent to end at 13,401.86 and the S&P 500 sank 44.17 points or 1.04 percent to close at 4,188.43.
The steep drop by the NASDAQ came amid weakness among technology stocks following negative analyst comments about several big-name companies including Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Oracle (ORCL).
Concerns about the outlook for inflation may also have weighed on the markets amid an increase in commodities prices.
Crude oil futures were marginally higher Monday on news of the shutdown of critical fuel supply pipelines in the U.S. following a major cyberattack. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up $0.02 or 0.02 percent at $64.92 a barrel.
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