No Help Yet For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked lower in four straight sessions, dropping more than 1,050 points or 4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 24,500-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on new U.S. tariffs, plus an extremely weak American jobs report. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index stumbled 265.49 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 24,507.81 after trading between 24,507.63 and 24,856.54.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group climbed 1.04 percent, while Alibaba Health Info skidded 1.23 percent, ANTA Sports was down 0.44 percent, China Life Insurance and WuXi Biologics both plunged 2.64 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tumbled 1.34 percent, China Resources Land shed 0.87 percent, CITIC retreated 1.53 percent, CNOOC declined 1.37 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical slid 0.30 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 1.30 percent, Haier Smart Home stumbled 1,62 percent, Hang Lung Properties tanked 1.86 percent, Henderson Land fell 0.55 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 1.00 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 0.66 percent, JD.com eased 0.16 percent, Lenovo slipped 0.20 percent, Li Auto plummeted 3.18 percent, Li Ning surrendered 1.80 percent, Meituan advanced 0.49 percent, New World Development jumped 1.09 percent, Nongfu Spring dropped 1.10 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.42 percent and Xiaomi Corporation added 0.47 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 542.42 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 43,588.58, while the NASDAQ tanked 472.27 points or 2.24 percent to close at 20,650.13 and the S&P 500 dropped 101.38 points or 1.60 percent to end at 6,238.01.

For the week, the Dow plummeted 2.9 percent, while the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the NASDAQ was down 2.2 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, as the White House announced new tariff rates on dozens of countries.

The new tariffs range from just 10 percent to as high as 41 percent, and the White House said a 40 percent levy will be imposed on goods that have been transshipped to evade applicable duties.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to the closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected job growth in the month of July.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on demand concerns for potentially reduced consumption amid new tariffs from the U.S. government. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.92 or 2.77 percent at $67.34 per barrel.