Soft Start Anticipated For China Stock Market

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(RTTNews) - The China stock market has climbed higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 30 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,265-point plateau but it's likely to open under pressure on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financials, properties and oil companies.

For the day, the index improved 10.10 points or 0.31 percent to finish at 3,265.75 after trading between 3,255.74 and 3,279.39. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 12.46 points or 0.60 percent to end at 2.098.44.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China strengthened 1.57 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.29 percent, China Construction Bank improved 1.52 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 0.91 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.98 percent, China Life Insurance dropped 0.99 percent, Jiangxi Copper sank 0.94 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) plunged 3.25 percent, Yankuang Energy rallied 1.36 percent, PetroChina added 0.35 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) climbed 1.26 percent, Huaneng Power tumbled 1.84 percent, China Shenhua Energy increased 1.19 percent, Gemdale accelerated 1.39 percent, Poly Developments soared 2.26 percent, China Vanke gained 1.02 percent and China Fortune Land Development and Beijing Capital Development were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and stayed that way until the FOMC announcement, which caused them to plummet.

The Dow plunged 530.49 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 32.030.11, while the NASDAQ tumbled 190.15 points or 1.60 percent to close at 11,669.96 and the S&P 500 sank 65.90 points or 1.65 percent to end at 3,936.97.

The late-day sell-off on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its decision to continue raising interest rates despite recent turmoil in the banking industry.

While the interest rate hike was widely expected, some traders may have been holding out hope the Fed would leave rates unchanged.

The central bank's latest projections suggest the Fed plans to raise rates just one more time this year to a range of 5.0 to 5.25 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data showed that crude inventories rose by 1.117 million barrels last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $70.90 a barrel, gaining $1.23 or 1.8 percent.

Swiss Market Ends Moderately Lower

Despite a decent spell in positive territory till about an hour before noon, the Switzerland market turned weak and kept drifting lower as the session progressed on Thursday to eventually settle with a moderate loss.

RTTNews | il y a 1h 58min

European Stocks Close Mostly Weak As Investors React To Earnings

European markets closed mostly lower on Thursday as investors reacted to a slew of earnings announcements and digested the latest batch of economic data from the region, and also followed the developments on the trade front.

RTTNews | il y a 2h 28min

U.S. Consumer Price Growth Matches Estimates In June

A closely watched report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with economist estimates in the month of June. The Commerce Department said its personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 0.3 percent in June after inching up by an upwardly revised 0.2 percent in May.

RTTNews | il y a 5h 17min

German Unemployment Rises In July

Germany's unemployment increased less than expected in July but the overall number of people out of work remained close to the 3 million mark due to the prolonged period of economic slowdown, official data revealed on Thursday. The number of unemployed rose by less-than-expected 2,000 from June, the Federal Employment Agency said. For July, economists had forecast an increase of 15,000.

RTTNews | il y a 5h 59min

U.S. Jobless Claims Inch Up Less Than Expected To 218,000

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly higher in the week ended July 26th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 218,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 217,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 224,000.

RTTNews | il y a 6h 7min