China Stock Market May Find Traction On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking more than 40 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,285-point plateau although it's due for support on Thursday.

The global forecast is mixed to higher as markets are expected to recover from selling pressure earlier this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished barely lower on Wednesday following losses from the resource and energy companies and mixed performances from the financials and properties.

For the day, the index dipped 1.85 points or 0.06 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,283.25 after moving as low as 3,263.69.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.23 percent, while Bank of China fell 0.30 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.53 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.59 percent, China Life Insurance skidded 1.10 percent, Jiangxi Copper tumbled 2.07 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) declined 1.22 percent, Yankuang Energy plunged 3.02 percent, PetroChina weakened 1.24 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) advanced 0.95 percent, Huaneng Power stumbled 1.63 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 1.35 percent, Gemdale added 0.33 percent, Poly Developments gained 0.41 percent, China Vanke dipped 0.25 percent, China Fortune Land climbed 1.14 percent, Beijing Capital Development sank 0.59 percent and China Construction Bank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as spent most of Wednesday bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow lost 58.06 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 32,798.40, while the NASDAQ gained 45.67 points or 0.40 percent to close at 11,576.00 and the S&P 500 perked 5.64 points or 0.14 percent to end at 3,992.01.

The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Tuesday's sell-off, which reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. increased more than expected in February. Also, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. fell to 10.8 million in January from 11.2 million in December.

Crude oil prices slipped on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about outlook for energy demand following Powell's remarks to Congress. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.92 or 1.2 percent at $76.66 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see February figures for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Consumer prices are tipped to add 0.2 percent on month and 1.9 percent on year, slowing from 0.8 percent on month and 2.1 percent on year in January. Producer prices are expected to sink an annual 1.3 percent after slipping 0.8 percent in the previous month.