Taiwan Markets End Slightly Up, Still Shaky

Taiwanese stocks in uneven territory

Major markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and elsewhere were all down on the back of news that Wall Street had seen its biggest one day fall in recent months.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7% closing at 19,137.95 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was nudged 10 points lower to 23,805.56.

Shanghai’s Composite Index improved just 0.5% to 2,840.05.

Taiwan on Wednesday meanwhile closed up 19.32 (0.19%) at 10,307.74 for the day.

Earlier in 2020, the Taiwanese market peaked at 12,197.64 in January before losing a quarter if its value in March.

Steady climbs last week were subsequently all but wiped out on Monday after news that oil prices hit an all time low earlier in the week – an issue that “has stirred wider concerns of a sharp economic slowdown,” according to Japan’s Mizuho Bank.

Demand for oil is said to be approaching levels not seen since the early 1990s in the wake of Gulf War I, and on Monday the price of a barrel of U.S. oil fell into negative territory, essentially meaning that storage costs are now higher than production costs leaving traders forced to pay others to take it away.

Addressing the plunging oil prices, AxiCorp’s Stephen Innes was reported as saying “Global markets are struggling mightily with a temporary but overwhelming demand drop,” meaning that by June we could be in a position to “fall prey to storage infrastructure saturation.”

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.