The Taiwan stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 500 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now sits just above the 22,150-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking likely on the docket after strong gains late last week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are tipped to split the difference.
The TSE finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the technology and plastics companies.
For the day, the index gained 116.72 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 22,159.42 after trading between 22,136.53 and 22,354.54.
Among the actives, Cathay Financial eased 0.15 percent, while Mega Financial was up 0.25 percent, CTBC Financial rallied 1.49 percent, First Financial collected 0.37 percent, Fubon Financial jumped 1.68 percent, E Sun Financial climbed 1.26 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company strengthened 1.35 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation perked 0.19 percent, Hon Hai Precision rose 0.28 percent, Largan Precision retreated 1.34 percent, MediaTek added 0.45 percent, Delta Electronics skidded 1.15 percent, Novatek Microelectronics gained 0.59 percent, Formosa Plastics improved 0.41 percent, Nan Ya Plastics slipped 0.12 percent, Asia Cement gathered 0.11 percent and Catcher Technology was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow broke barely into the green by the sessions end.
The Dow added 38.16 points or 0.09 percent to finish at a record 42,063.36, while the NASDAQ slumped 65.68 points or 0.36 percent to close at 17,948.32 and the S7P 500 fell 11.09 points or 0.19 percent to end at 5,702.55.
For the week, the Dow jumped 1.6 percent, the NASDAQ climbed 1.5 percent and the S&P rallied 1.4 percent.
The early weakness on Wall Street partly reflected profit taking, with traders cashing in on Thursdays significant rally amid a positive reaction to the Federal Reserves decision to slash interest rates by half of a percentage point.
Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves as they question what the next catalyst for the markets will be now that the Feds first rate cut is in the rearview mirror.
Oil futures settled slightly lower on Friday due largely to profit taking by traders after solid gains last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October eased $0.03 at $71.92 a barrel.
Closer to home, Taiwan will see August figures for unemployment later today; in July, the jobless rate was 3.34 percent.