China Shares May Open Under Water Again On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in three consecutive trading days, shedding almost 70 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits above the 3,865-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is tempered by concerns over the growing economic conflict between the United States and China. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the properties, gains from the financial and oil companies and a mixed performance from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index dropped 24.27 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 3,865.23 after trading between 3,851.12 and 3,918.44. The Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 47.39 points or 1.91 percent to end at 2,439.83.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surged 3.16 percent, while Bank of China collected 1.43 percent, Agricultural Bank of China expanded 1.84 percent, China Merchants Bank soared 2.87 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 2.08 percent, China Life Insurance jumped 2.07 percent, Jiangxi Copper plummeted 6.81 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) improved 0.82 percent, Yankuang Energy spiked 2.79 percent, PetroChina improved 1.22 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.12 percent, Huaneng Power added 0.69 percent, China Shenhua Energy jumped 1.75 percent, Gemdale fell 0.23 percent, Poly Developments eased 0.13 percent and China Vanke shed 0.61 percent

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday but ticked steadily higher before finally finishing mixed.

The Dow climbed 202.88 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 46.270.46, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.91 points or 0.76 percent to close at 22,521.70 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.41 points or 0.16 percent to end at 6,644.31.

The late-day pullback on Wall Street came as a post by President Donald Trump reinforced earlier concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Trump accused China of an "economically hostile act" by purposefully not buying U.S. soybeans and threatened to terminate business with China having to do with cooking oil and other elements of trade as retribution.

The selling pressure was partly offset by upbeat earnings news from big-name financial companies, including Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Crude oil prices pulled back sharply on Tuesday as renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China have heightened, while forecasts predicting low demand in the months ahead also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $0.70 or 1.18 percent at $58.79 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will release September figures for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Overall consumer prices are expected to rise 0.2 percent on month but slip 0.2 percent on year following the flat monthly reading and the 0.4 percent annual decline in August. Producer prices are expected to sink 2.3 percent on year after falling 2.9 percent in the previous month.