Lower Open Called For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, tumbling almost 80 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 2,900-point plateau although it's likely to slide beneath that support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on disappointing earnings news and soft data. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following heavy losses from the property stocks and mixed performances from the finance and resource sectors.

For the day, the index lost 13.42 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 2,901.95 after trading between 2,894.29 and 2,922.03. The Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 20.66 points or 1.32 percent to end at 1,546.29.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.83 percent, while China Construction Bank perked 0.13 percent, China Merchants Bank shed 0.48 percent, Bank of Communications climbed 1.05 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.64 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) declined 1.43 percent, Yankuang Energy lost 0.53 percent, PetroChina added 0.53 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) surged 3.58 percent, Huaneng Power advanced 0.97 percent, China Shenhua Energy jumped 1.70 percent, Gemdale plummeted 5.19 percent, Poly Developments plunged 3.11 percent, China Vanke tanked 2.92 percent and Bank of China and Jiangxi Copper were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened deep in the red on Wednesday and only moved lower as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow plummeted 504.22 points or 1.25 percent to finish at 39,853.87, while the NASDAQ plunged 654.94 points or 3.64 percent to close at 17,342.41 and the S&P 500 tumbled 128.61 points or 2.31 percent to end at 5,427.13.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to disappointing corporate earnings news from companies like Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

In economic news, the Commerce Department unexpectedly reported a continued decrease in new home sales in the U.S. in June.

Oil prices moved higher on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended up $0.63 or 0.81 percent at $77.59 a barrel, snapping a three-day losing streak.