Losses May Accelerate For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Thursday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 110 points or 3.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,000-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares and the property stocks.

For the day, the index eased 5.56 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 2,997.81 after trading between 2,977.72 and 3,003.72. The Shenzhen Composite Index eased 0.82 points or 0.01 percent to end at 1,967.38.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Jiangxi Copper both slid 0.25 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.33 percent, China Construction Bank fell 0.38 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.30 percent, Bank of Communications shed 0.45 percent, China Life Insurance collected 0.36 percent, Yankuang Energy dropped 0.93 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) jumped 1.94 percent, Huaneng Power eased 0.15 percent, China Shenhua Energy skidded 1.10 percent, Gemdale plummeted 5.19 percent, Poly Developments tanked 2.22 percent, China Vanke tumbled 1.94 percent, China Fortune Land skidded 1.32 percent and Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) and PetroChina were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 146.51 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 32,001.25, while the NASDAQ tumbled 181.86 points or 1.73 percent to close at 10,342.94 and the S&P 500 lost 39.80 points or 1.06 percent to end at 3,719.89.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders continued to digest the fourth straight 75-basis point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, and comments from the central bank Chair Jerome Powell that signaled more interest rate hikes in the coming months.

Investors also digested the latest batch of economic data and looked ahead to the crucial non-farm payroll data, due on Friday.

The Commerce Department said the U.S. trade gap widened to a three-month high in September, while the Labor Department said jobless claims declined last week and the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose more than expected.

Crude oil prices settled sharply lower Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand. The dollar's sharp uptick following hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve also weighed on crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December sank $1.83 or 2 percent at $88.17 a barrel.