China Stock Market May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, retreating almost 50 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just shy of the 2,950-point plateau although it's likely to stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and energy stocks, while the technology and property sectors were mixed.

For the day, the index slid 7.63 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 2,949.93 after trading between 2,920.20 and 2,957.11. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 8.29 points or 0.52 percent to end at 1,590.88.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surrendered 2.18 percent, while Bank of China tumbled 2.32 percent, China Construction Bank slumped 1.69 percent, China Merchants Bank tanked 2.39 percent, Bank of Communications plunged 2.45 percent, China Life Insurance stumbled 2.41 percent, Jiangxi Copper surged 3.31 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 1.32 percent, Yankuang Energy shed 0.68 percent, PetroChina lost 0.94 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) skidded 1.23 percent, Huaneng Power dropped 1.03 percent, China Shenhua Energy fell 0.66 percent, Gemdale climbed 1.18 percent, Poly Developments sank 0.56 percent and China Vanke was down 0.86 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened flat but generally moved higher throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 67.87 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,375.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 164.46 points or 0.90 percent to close at a record 18,352.76 and the S&P 500 gained 30.17 points or 0.54 percent to end at 5,567.19 - also a record.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.0 percent and the Dow advanced 0.7 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for June generated optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

While employment jumped by more than expected in June, the report also showed downward revisions to job growth in April and May as well as another unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate.

Treasury yields moved lower after the release of the report amid optimism the continued increase by the jobless rate will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in the near future.

Oil futures slipped on Friday, but still posted their fourth straight weekly gain amid optimism about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.72 or 0.86 percent at $83.16 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2 percent in the week.