The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, dropping almost 190 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,600-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity, although technology shares may provide a slight boost. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The JCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the cement and finance sectors, while the food stocks were up and the resource companies were mixed.
For the day, the index shed 28.03 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 7,606.60 after trading between 7,587.21 and 7,666.43.
Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga retreated 1.33 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia slumped 1.15 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia surrendered 3.64 percent, Bank Central Asia dropped 0.94 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia stumbled 1.26 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison surged 5.94 percent, Indocement fell 0.33 percent, Semen Indonesia sank 0.72 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur added 0.66 percent, United Tractors tumbled 1.68 percent, Astra International tanked 2.38 percent, Energi Mega Persada spiked 3.62 percent, Astra Agro Lestari climbed 1.12 percent, Aneka Tambang rose 0.31 percent, Jasa Marga rallied 2.78 percent, Vale Indonesia shed 0.75 percent, Timah tumbled 1.88 percent and Bumi Resources, Bank Mandiri and Bank Maybank Indonesia were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely hugged the line before ending mixed.
The Dow slumped 154.52 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 42,233.05, while the NASDAQ jumped 145.56 points or 0.78 percent to close at a record 18,712.75 and the S&P 500 rose 9.40 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,832.92.
The climb by the NASDAQ came ahead of the release of earnings news from big-name tech companies, including with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL).
Semiconductor stocks showed a particularly strong move to the upside, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.3 percent.
In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board noted a substantial improvement by U.S. consumer confidence in October. Also, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. fell to 7.44 million in September from a downwardly revised 7.86 million in August.
Oil futures settled lower again on Tuesday amid concerns crude supplies will far exceed near term demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.17 or about 0.25 percent at $67.21 a barrel.