China Bourse May Reverse Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The China stock market headed south again on Tuesday, one session after ending the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 40 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just beneath the 3,030-point plateau although it's likely to bounce higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key economic data later in the day. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index dropped 23.23 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 3,028.05 after trading between 3,013.86 and 3,043.20. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 4.83 points or 0.29 percent to end at 1,684.15.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China retreated 1.45 percent, while Bank of China declined 1.55 percent, China Construction Bank skidded 1.11 percent, China Merchants Bank tumbled 1.85 percent, Bank of Communications surrendered 2.85 percent, China Life Insurance fell 0.35 percent, Jiangxi Copper stumbled 1.65 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 2.90 percent, Yankuang Energy sank 0.84 percent, PetroChina dropped 1.70 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) weakened 1.75 percent, Huaneng Power slumped 1.91 percent, China Shenhua Energy lost 1.61 percent, Gemdale fell 1.69 percent, Poly Developments was down 1.82 percent and China Vanke slipped 1.96 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday but trended to the upside as the day progressed and ended mixed.

The Dow slumped 120.62 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 38,747.42, while the NASDAQ rallied 151.02 points or 0.88 percent to close at a record 17,343.55 and the S&P 500 added 14.53 points or 0.27 percent to end at 5,375.32 - also a record.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ was partly due to a surge by shares of Apple (AAPL), with the tech giant surging 7.3 percent to a record after unveiling new AI features that may drive users to upgrade their devices.

But traders are looking ahead to two potentially major market moving economic events later today - the Labor Department's inflation report for May, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for the economy and interest rates.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as caution reigned ahead of inventory data and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.16 at $77.90 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will release May figures for consumer and producer prices later this morning. Overall consumer prices are expected to rise 0.4 percent on year after adding 0.3 percent in April. Producer prices are seen lower by an annual 1.5 percent after sinking 2.5 percent in the previous month.