No Help Yet For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, tumbling more than 630 points or 3.9 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 16,280-point plateau and it's expected to extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on rising treasury yields and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the property stocks and technology shares, while the oil companies offered support.

For the day, the index retreated 231.06 points or 1.40 percent to finish at 16,280.22 after trading between 16,010.72 and 16,452.97. Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 3.85 percent, while Alibaba Health Info gathered 0.28 percent, ANTA Sports advanced 0.79 percent, China Life Insurance added 0.31 percent, China Mengniu Dairy dropped 1.18 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rose 0.29 percent, China Resources Land skidded 1.28 percent, CITIC fell 0.14 percent, CNOOC gained 0.30 percent, Country Garden tanked 3.86 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical surged 2.09 percent, Galaxy Entertainment slumped 1.71 percent, Hang Lung Properties stumbled 1.38 percent, Henderson Land climbed 0.93 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 1.07 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.27 percent, JD.com surrendered 3.80 percent, Lenovo improved 0.71 percent, Li Ning plunged 4.06 percent, Longfor retreated 1.81 percent, Meituan declined 2.56 percent, New World Development shed 0.21 percent, Techtronic Industries lost 0.20 percent, Xiaomi Corporation spiked 1.90 percent and WuXi Biologics plummeted 9.53 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to hold early gains, heading south by midday and finishing at daily lows.

The Dow slumped 90.22 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 30,333.59, while the NASDAQ shed 65.66 points or 0.61 percent to end at 10,614.84 and the S&P 500 lost 29.38 points or 0.80 percent to close at 3,665.78.

Stocks initially benefited from another batch of upbeat earnings news from big-name companies like IBM Corp. (IBM) and AT&T (T).

Buying interest waned over the course of the morning, however, with a continued surge in treasury yields contributing to the subsequent pullback by the markets. The yield on the benchmark ten-year note extended recent gains, reaching its highest levels in over fourteen years.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continue to drive yields higher, with Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker saying that he expects the Fed to continue raising rates "for a while."

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points in early November, bringing the target range for the federal funds rate to 3.75 to 4.0 percent.

Crude oil futures for November delivery settled higher on their expiration day as traders weighed energy demand and supply positions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November rose $0.43 or 0.5 percent at $85.98 a barrel on the expiration day. But WTI Crude oil futures for December eased to $84.51 a barrel.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will see September figures for consumer prices later today; in August, inflation was flat on month and up 1.9 percent on year.