Taiwan Stocks May Test Support At 9,000

The Taiwan Stock Exchange ended just above the 9,000-point plateau, and now traders hope the market can line when it opens on Thursday to keep. The global forecast for the Asian market is flat with a hint of weakness, with the caution expected to prevail in the absence of a new impetus. Steel stocks are likely to see some softness, like gold, oil and gas companies. The European markets ended lower and U.S. stock exchanges mixed, but ended little changed – and Asian markets are forecast to split the difference.

For days, the index fell 104.64 points, or 1.14 percent to finish at 9,006.82 after trading between 8,992.64 and 9,129.88 on turnover of 145.30 one billion Taiwan dollars. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. shed 2.25 percent and United Microelectronics Corp. fell 3.41 percent.

Wall Street offers little clarity on the stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with resource stocks leading the way, still less as the dollar weakened on the day, traditionally a driver of a higher demand for commodities.Early on the day, Bernanke testified before the House budget committee, said that the economic recovery appears to have strengthened over the past few months, but he said that unemployment remains too high to consider the recovery set.