Hang Seng May Give Up Support At 18,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in six straight sessions, tumbling more than 820 points or 4.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 18,025-point plateau and it's predicted to open lower again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower ahead of key U.S. inflation data later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Tuesday as the oil, property and technology stocks were mostly lower.

For the day, the index lost 70.56 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 18,025.89 after trading between 17,892.01 and 18,145.58.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 1.99 percent, while Alibaba Health Info tanked 1.90 percent, ANTA Sports slumped 0.89 percent, China Life Insurance surrendered 1.78 percent, China Mengniu Dairy surged 2.41 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.55 percent, CITIC stumbled 1.05 percent, CNOOC retreated 1.65 percent, Country Garden soared 2.27 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical slid 0.35 percent, ENN Energy climbed 1.34 percent, Galaxy Entertainment jumped 1.42 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 1.18 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas dropped 0.71 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.53 percent, JD.com and Meituan both skidded 0.72 percent, Lenovo dipped 0.24 percent, Li Ning lost 0.40 percent, New World Development fell 0.38 percent, Techtronic Industries advanced 0.64 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rallied 1.54 percent and WuXi Biologics sank 0.47 percent Henderson Land and CK Infrastructure were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, rallied midday and then finished under water.

The Dow dipped 17.73 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 34,645.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.28 points or 1.04 percent to close at 13,773.61 and the S&P 500 sank 25.56 points or 0.57 percent to end at 4,461.90.

The lower close on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation later today.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week; CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 93.0 percent chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged.

A steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ, with the software giant plunging by 13.5 percent after the company reported weaker than expected fiscal first quarter revenues and provided disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday to a 10-month closing high after the monthly report from (OPEC) showed the oil market may be a lot tighter than initially thought. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.55 or 1.8 percent at $88.84 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will provide Q2 numbers for industrial production and producer prices later today. In the three months prior, industrial production climbed 3.9 percent on year and producer prices added an annual 1.0 percent.