The Taiwan stock market on Tuesday snapped the six-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 200 points or 1.9 percent. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just beneath the 10,500-point plateau although it may find renewed support on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, although the gains may be capped by weakness from crude oil prices. The European markets were down and the U.S. markets were up - and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow the latter lead.
The TSE finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and the technology stocks.
For the day, the index shed 29.41 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 10,496.57 after trading between 10,463.22 and 10,518.69 on turnover of 107.226 billion Taiwan dollars.
Among the actives, Innolux skidded 1.03 percent, while Largan Precision dropped 1.63 percent, AU Optronics slid 0.81 percent, Catcher Technology added 0.13 percent, Taiwan Steel added 0.22 percent, Formosa Plastics shed 0.95 percent, Cathay Financial dipped 0.41 percent, Mega Financial lost 0.41 percent, Fubon Financial eased 0.21 percent and Hon Hai Precision and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as stocks saw some early pressure on Tuesday before bargain hunting in the afternoon put them in the green.
The Dow added 56.97 points or 0.26 percent to 21,865.37, while the NASDAQ gained 18.87 points or 0.30 percent to 6,301.89 and the S&P was up 2.06 points or 0.08 percent to 2,446.30.
Markets calmed after some initial weakness after North Korea's missile launch over Japan. President Trump said Tuesday that "all options are on the table" for dealing with North Korea.
The upside was limited as October West Texas Intermediate crude fell 13 cents or 0.3 percent to settle at a more than one-month low of $46.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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