Hong Kong Shares May Stop The Bleeding On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in seven straight trading days, plunging more than 1,850 points or 7 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 25,440-point plateau and it is overdue for support 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 Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday as the property, technology and energy shares were mostly under water.

For the day, the index stumbled 448.13 points or 1.73 percent to finish at 25,441.35 after trading between 25,331.64 and 26,102.68.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tanked 4.31 percent, while Alibaba Health Info retreated 3.09 percent, ANTA Sports contracted 2.48 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 1.58 percent, China Mengniu Dairy skidded 2.38 percent, China Resources Land lost 1.23 percent, CITIC slipped 1.14 percent, CNOOC fell 1.11 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical plummeted 7.08 percent, ENN Energy surged 3.19 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plunged 5.47 percent, Haier Smart Home shed 1.46 percent, Hang Lung Properties dipped 0.68 percent, Henderson Land rose 0.22 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas jumped 1.00 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China spiked 1.77 percent, JD.com eased 0.47 percent, Lenovo surrendered 3.99 percent, Li Auto slumped 2.53 percent, Li Ning dropped 1.83 percent, Meituan sank 1.50 percent, New World Development stumbled 4.15 percent, Nongfu Spring was down 0.93 percent, Techtronic Industries declined 2.99 percent, Xiaomi Corporation slid 0.94 percent and WuXi Biologics tumbled 3.88 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.