China Shares May Find Traction On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slumping nearly 80 points or 3 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 2,830-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain ahead of the FOMC's rate decision and statement later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index tumbled 52.83 points or 1.83 percent to finish at 2,830.53 after trading between 2,829.25 and 2,881.35. The Shenzhen Composite Index plunged 44.28 points or 2.70 percent to end at 1,593.12.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.58 percent, while Bank of China lost 0.70 percent, China Construction Bank retreated 1.30 percent, China Merchants Bank skidded 1.12 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.83 percent, China Life Insurance stumbled 1.83 percent, Jiangxi Copper fell 0.55 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) declined 1.22 percent, Yankuang Energy dropped 0.74 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.91 percent, China Shenhua Energy rose 0.31 percent, Gemdale plummeted 3.42 percent, Poly Developments surrendered 2.20 percent, China Vanke plunged 2.68 percent and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) and PetroChina were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday; the Dow turned higher and finished in the green, while the NASDAQ remained under water throughout the session and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line before ending slightly in the red.

The Dow climbed 133.86 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 38,467.31, while the NASDAQ dropped 118.15 points or 0.76 percent to close at 15,509.90 and the S&P 500 dipped 2.96 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,924.97.

The pullback by the NASDAQ came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the tech sector ahead of the release of quarterly results from the likes of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), software giant Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META).

Uncertainty ahead of today's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement may also have inspired traders to book profits. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but the accompanying statement could have a significant impact on the outlook for rates.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted an unexpected increase in job openings in December. Also, the Conference Board reported a continued improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in January.

Crude oil prices moved sharply on Tuesday, largely offsetting the steep drop in the previous session after the International Monetary Fund raised its global growth forecast for 2024. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery jumped $1.04 or 1.4 percent to $77.82 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see January results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes later this morning; in December, their scores were 49.0, 50.4 and 50.3, respectively.