Soft Start Expected For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up more than 275 points or 1.2 percent. The Hang Seng now sits just beneath the 22,960-point plateau and it figures to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft with renewed selling pressure likely among the technology stocks. The European markets were up and the U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday as losses from the technology, semiconductor and automobile sectors were mitigated by support from the financial shares.

For the day, the index slumped 136.18 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 22,958.65 after trading between 22,928.27 and 23,184.09.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water on Thursday and stayed that way throughout the trading day, although they came off session lows.

The Dow shed 132.54 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 52,342.56, while the NASDAQ tumbled 365.13 points or 1.38 percent to end at 26,184.72 and the S&P 500 sank 23.59 points or 0.30 percent to close at 7,720.39.

The sharp pullback by the NASDAQ came as technology stocks came under pressure as concerns about artificial trade once again resurfaced on Wall Street.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) led the way lower, plunging by 13.2 percent after reporting weaker-than-expected third quarter revenue as well as negative free cash flow.

On the U.S. economic front, a closely watched report from the Commerce Department showed consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in the month of September.

Crude oil prices moved lower on Thursday on expectations of a possible de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict as Qatar presses Iran to negotiate with the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.79 or 0.77 percent at $101.99 per barrel.