China Stock Market May Stop The Bleeding On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, retreating more than 80 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,800-point plateau although it's due for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, with strength likely from the oil and technology sectors. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to also move to the upside.

The SCI finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the financial, property, resource and energy sectors.

For the day, the index tumbled 68.03 points or 1.76 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,800.35 after peaking at 3,887.20. The Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 46.52 points or 1.91 percent to end at 2,394.27.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China fell 1.85 percent, while Bank of China lost 1.94 percent, Agricultural Bank of China plummeted 2.34 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 1.19 percent, Bank of Communications dropped 2.23 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 2.46 percent, Jiangxi Copper crashed 2.76 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) cratered 2.57 percent, Yankuang Energy tumbled 2.48 percent, PetroChina declined 1.60 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) contracted 1.37 percent, Huaneng Power skidded 1.08 percent, China Shenhua Energy retreated 1.55 percent, Gemdale plunged 4.29 percent, Poly Developments stumbled 2.92 percent and China Vanke surrendered 3.58 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but moved largely to the upside throughout the day and ended with modest gains.

The Dow climbed 147.16 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 45,565.23, while the NASDAQ added 45.87 points or 0.21 percent to close at 21,590.14 and the S&P 500 rose 15.46 points or 0.24 percent to end at a record 6,481.40.

The modest strength on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the release of highly anticipated earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA). After the markets closed, NVIDIA reported earnings that increased from the same period last year and beat estimates.

Traders were also reluctant to make big moves ahead of Friday's Commerce Department report on personal income and spending for July, which includes the Federal Reserve's preferred readings on consumer price inflation.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 87.2 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting in September.

Crude oil surged on Wednesday after U.S. crude and gasoline inventories fell more than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.83 or 1.33 percent at $64.08 per barrel.