The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 300 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just shy of the 21,860-point plateau and it may spin its wheels on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the next round of economic data, and skepticism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the technology stocks and mixed performances from the financial shares and plastics.
For the day, the index gained 54.64 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 21,858.41 after trading between 21,812.20 and 21,937.40.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial spiked 2.16 percent, while CTBC Financial tumbled 2.13 percent, First Financial dropped 0.88 percent, Fubon Financial collected 0.41 percent, E Sun Financial sank 0.87 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.46 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation fell 0.35 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.27 percent, Largan Precision and Asia Cement both perked 0.23 percent, Catcher Technology climbed 1.11 percent, MediaTek jumped 1.95 percent, Delta Electronics was up 0.14 percent, Novatek Microelectronics soared 2.64 percent, Formosa Plastics advanced 0.90 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slumped 1.27 percent, Taiwan Cement added 0.44 percent, China Steel rallied 1.26 percent and Mega Financial was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday finished the same way.
The Dow shed 216.73 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 38,852.86, while the NASDAQ advanced 99.09 points or 0.59 percent to close at a record 17,019.88 and the S&P 500 perked 1.32 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,306.04.
The continued advance by the NASDAQ came on a sharp increase by shares of Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling surging 7.1 percent to a record closing high.
Meanwhile, a steep drop by shares of Merck (MRK) weighed on the Dow, as the drug giant tumbled by 2.6 percent to its lowest closing level in well over a month.
In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board noted an unexpectedly significant improvement in consumer confidence in May.
Oil prices rose Tuesday on hopes demand for oil will pick up in the U.S. driving season, and on expectations that OPEC will extend its production cuts into the next quarter. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended higher by $2.11 or 2.7 percent at $79.83 a barrel.