Soft Start Eyed For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Tuesday ended the modest two-day winning streak in which it had risen just 6 points or 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 2,850-point plateau and it may remain stuck in neutral again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key corporate and inflation data. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to also hug the unchanged line.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the properties, gains from the financials and a mixed picture from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index fell 6.79 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 2,848.73 after trading between 2,843.16 and 2,853.78. The Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 19.07 points or 1.26 percent to end at 1,493.43.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rallied 1.56 percent, while Bank of China jumped 1.77 percent, China Construction Bank strengthened 1.46 percent, China Merchants Bank dipped 0.21 percent, Agricultural Bank of China climbed 1.22 percent, China Life Insurance collected 1.08 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.78 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) perked 0.29 percent, Yankuang Energy improved 1.08 percent, PetroChina accelerated 2.98 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) surged 4.21 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.57 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 3.35 percent, Gemdale plummeted 6.34 percent, Poly Developments tanked 2.74 percent and China Vanke plunged 3.37 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is flat to positive as the major averages straddled the unchanged line throughout Tuesday's trade before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow rose 10.00 points or 0.02 percent to finish at a record 41,250.50, while the NASDAQ added 29.05 points or 0.16 percent to close at 17,754.82 and the S&P 500 perked 8.96 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,625.80.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling due to release its fiscal second quarter results later today.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of Commerce Department's report on personal income and spending in the month of July, which includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve, on Friday.

While the data is not likely to affect optimism the Fed will lower rates next month, it could impact expectations for how quickly the central bank cuts rates.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday after three successive days of strong gains, consolidating ahead of supply data due out later today. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October slumped $1.89 or 2.5 percent at $75.53 a barrel.