Rally May Stall For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has ticked higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 35 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 4,160-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amidst profit taking and contrasting earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were mixed with a touch of weakness, and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished slightly higher again on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index rose 16.89 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 4,157.98 after trading between 4,138.30 and 4,170.21. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 13.25 points or 0.49 percent to end at 2,704.80.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.83 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.56 percent, Agricultural Bank of China fell 0.29 percent, China Merchants Bank jumped 1.93 percent, Bank of Communications improved 0.76 percent, China Life Insurance rallied 2.65 percent, Jiangxi Copper skyrocketed 9.56 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged 7.53 percent, Yankuang Energy vaulted 1.66 percent, PetroChina climbed 1.11 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gained 0.62 percent, China Shenhua Energy rose 0.49 percent, Gemdale soared 6.69 percent, Poly Developments spiked 4.56 percent, China Vanke accelerated 5.56 percent and Huaneng Power was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and then mostly hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow rose 55.96 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,071.56, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.33 points or 0.72 percent to end at 23,685.12 and the S&P 500 dipped 9.02 points or 0.13 percent to close at 6,969.01.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came amid a steep drop by shares of Microsoft (MSFT) after the company reported slowing cloud computing growth in its fiscal second quarter and provided disappointing third quarter guidance.

Profit taking may also have contributed to the early weakness after the S&P 500 briefly peeked above the 7,000 level for the first time during Wednesday's session.

A strong performance by shares of Meta Platforms (META) may have limited the downside after the Facebook parent reported better than expected fourth quarter results and forecast first quarter revenues above estimates.

Crude oil prices spiked on Thursday as Iran shrugged off U.S. threats to negotiate or face attack, causing concerns over possible supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $2.23 or 3.53 percent at $65.44 per barrel.