China Bourse May Slip Beneath 4,000-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The China stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday, one day after ending the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 80 points or 2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,015-point plateau although it may head south again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on easing optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the resource and property stocks were capped by weakness from the financial shares and oil companies.

For the day, the index gained 28.11 points or 0.70 percent to finish at the daily high of 4,016.33 after moving as low as 3,986.94. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 33.31 points or 1.32 percent to end at 2,550.28.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tanked 2.00 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China tumbled 1.93 percent, Bank of Communications lost 1.93 percent, China Life Insurance rose 0.27 percent, Jiangxi Copper skyrocketed 9.57 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged 7.02 percent, Yankuang Energy strengthened 1.36 percent, PetroChina slumped 0.78 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) sank 0.72 percent, Huaneng Power spiked 6.86 percent, China Shenhua Energy skidded 1.06 percent, Gemdale improved 0.76 percent, Poly Developments perked 0.27 percent, China Vanke added 0.64 percent and China Merchants Bank was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher and stayed that way for much of the day before slumping late in the session to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow slipped 74.37 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 47,632.00, while the NASDAQ climbed 130.98 points or 0.55 percent to finish at a record 23,958.47 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.30 points or 0.00 percent to end at 6,890.59.

Early support came from the tech shares after Nvidia (NVDA) became the first company with a $5 trillion market capitalization.

The late-day weakness followed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments after the central bank's monetary policy announcement. While the Fed lowered interest rates by another quarter point as expected, Powell's post-meeting remarks offset optimism for another rate cut in December.

Powell said a further reduction in rates in December is "not a foregone conclusion," noting Fed officials had "strongly differing views about how to proceed" at the final meeting of the year.

Highlighting the high level of uncertainty due to government shutdown delaying key data, Powell also said there's a "growing chorus" that feels the Fed should "wait a cycle" to continue cutting rates.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Wednesday after a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a steep drop by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.31 or 0.5 percent at $60.46 per barrel.