China Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had retreated almost 70 points or 2.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,240-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on conflicting signals about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index spiked 80.19 points or 2.54 percent to finish at 3,240.94 after trading between 3,159.43 and 3,245.22. The Shenzhen Composite Index surged 77.39 points or 4.21 percent to end at 1,915.85.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China picked up 0.15 percent, while Bank of China was up 1.50 percent, China Construction Bank rose 0.36 percent, China Merchants Bank gathered 2.00 percent, Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.40 percent, China Life Insurance soared 2.59 percent, Jiangxi Copper gained 1.05 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) strengthened 1.48 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 2.21 percent, PetroChina perked 0.34 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) added 0.81 percent, Huaneng Power accelerated 2.23 percent, China Shenhua Energy advanced 1.11 percent, Gemdale spiked 2.76 percent, Poly Developments improved 1.62 percent and China Vanke jumped 2.22 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but quickly faded and then hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow advanced 221.16 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 42,518.28, while the NASDAQ slumped 43.71 points or 0.23 percent to close at 19.044.39 and the S&P 500 rose 6.69 points or 0.11 percent to end at 5,842.91.

The initial strength on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices rose by slightly less than expected in the month of December.

The smaller than expected monthly increase by producer prices helped ease recent concerns about the outlook for inflation and interest rates, although the faster annual growth kept buying interest somewhat subdued.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of a more closely watched report on consumer price inflation later today.

Oil prices came off five-month highs on Tuesday as investors shifted their focus on the possible impact of Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on imports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed lower by $1.32 or about 1.67 percent at $77.50 a barrel.