Continued Selling Pressure Seen For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after ending the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 90 points or 2.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,930-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on a declining outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial and resource stocks, while the property sector offered support.

For the day, the index sank 15.69 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 3,931.05 after trading between 3,927.51 and 3,967.97. The Shenzhen Composite Index sank 18.90 points or 0.76 percent to end at 2,454.44.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.49 percent, while Bank of China soared 4.00 percent, Agricultural Bank of China dropped 0.73 percent, China Merchants Bank was up 0.02 percent, Bank of Communications improved 1.59 percent, China Life Insurance perked 0.23 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.75 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) added 0.55 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.47 percent, PetroChina retreated 1.46 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.51 percent, China Shenhua Energy slumped 1.22 percent, Gemdale spiked 2.43 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.73 percent, China Vanke rallied 2.31 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday and finished deeply under water.

The Dow stumbled 386.51 points or 0.84 percent to finish at 45,752.26, while the NASDAQ plummeted 486.18 points or 2.15 percent to close at 22,078.05 and the S&P 500 dropped 103.40 points or 1.56 percent to end at 6,538.76.

The early rally on Wall Street was a positive reaction to highly anticipated earnings news from market leader and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which reported better than expected third quarter results and providing upbeat guidance - although the stock tumbled later in the day.

The subsequent downturn by the broader markets reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the release of the Labor Department's long-delayed jobs report for September. While the report showed an unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate, job growth in September far exceeded economist estimates.

The mixed data further eroded confidence that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by another quarter point in December. While CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates the chances of a rate cut next month have risen to 39.8 percent from 30.1 percent on Wednesday, that figure is down sharply from 98.8 percent a month ago.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Thursday as investors assessed reports of renewed efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war ahead of the U.S. deadline. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.27 or 0.44 percent at $59.18 per barrel.