The Taiwan stock market on Monday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 190 points or 1.8 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 10,815-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower amid a sharp drop in crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were mostly down and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the finance, technology and cement stocks.
For the day, the index sank 47.09 points or 0.43 percent to finish at the daily low of 10,817.45 after peaking at 10,890.20 on turnover of 123.71 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the actives, Mega Financial slid 0.74 percent, while Cathay Financial lost 0.38 percent, Fubon Financial fell 0.59 percent, CTBC Financial retreated 0.24 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shed 0.45 percent, Innolux dropped 0.90 percent, AU Optronics skidded 0.41 percent, Hon Hai Precision eased 0.12 percent, MediaTek lost 0.88 percent, Taiwan Cement tumbled 2.30 percent and Chunghwa Telecom and Largan Precision were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as stocks were lackluster on Monday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before ending mixed.
The Dow rose 44.95 points or 0.18 percent to 25,064.36, while the NASDAQ dipped 20.26 points or 0.26 percent to 7,805.72 and the S&P 500 fell 2.88 points or 0.10 percent to 2,798.43.
Traders were reluctant to make big moves ahead of key quarterly results this week, including Goldman Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Morgan Stanley (MS), American Express (AXP), IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT), and General Electric (GE).
In economic news, the Commerce Department said retail sales in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in June, as did business inventories in May. Also, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said manufacturing activity continued to grow at a brisk pace in July, although slower than the previous month.
Many of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, although considerable weakness was visible among energy stocks - which came amid a sharp drop in the price of crude oil as August delivery plunged $2.95 to $68.06 a barrel.
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