China Stock Market May Find Traction On Friday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has tracked lower in four straight sessions, sinking almost 65 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,9650-point plateau although it's due for support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher ahead of key employment data from the United States later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets also figure to track higher.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Thursday as losses from the resource stocks were mitigated by support from the financials and properties.

For the day, the index fell 2.73 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 2,966.21 after trading between 2,949.14 and 2,976.01. The Shenzhen Composite Index sank 4.95 points or 0.27 percent to end at 1,850.20.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.64 percent, while Bank of China improved 0.76 percent, China Construction Bank was up 0.16 percent, China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications both perked 0.18 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.38 percent, Jiangxi Copper eased 0.17 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.75 percent, Yankuang Energy retreated 1/34 percent, PetroChina slid 0.44 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) shed 0.56 percent, Huaneng Power rallied 2.11 percent, China Shenhua Energy declined 1.51 percent, Gemdale dropped 0.79 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.10 percent and China Vanke added 0.46 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher on Thursday and largely stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow gained 62.95 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 36,117.38, while the NASDAQ surged 193.28 points or 1.37 percent to end at 14,339.99 and the S&P 500 added 36.25 points or 0.80 percent to close at 4,585.59.

The strength on Wall Street reflected ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.

Oil futures settled slightly lower Thursday amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand due to global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.04 at $69.34 a barrel.