Lower Open Predicted For China Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, sinking more than 55 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just shy of the 3,560-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on new U.S. tariffs, plus an extremely weak American jobs report. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the oil and property stocks, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index shed 13.26 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 3,559.95 after trading between 3,550.04 and 3,581.75. The Shenzhen Composite Index perked 0.38 points or 0.02 percent to end at 2,175.49.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China improved 0.79 percent, while Agricultural Bank of China collected 0.48 percent, China Merchants Bank eased 0.13 percent, Bank of Communications slipped 0.52 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 0.44 percent, Jiangxi Copper rose 0.36 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) slipped 0.54 percent, Yankuang Energy added 0.55 percent, PetroChina plunged 4.06 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) plummeted 5.32 percent, Huaneng Power lost 0.55 percent, China Shenhua Energy retreated 1.57 percent, Gemdale shed 0.53 percent, Poly Developments fell 0.38 percent, China Vanke sank 0.78 percent and Bank of China was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 542.42 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 43,588.58, while the NASDAQ tanked 472.27 points or 2.24 percent to close at 20,650.13 and the S&P 500 dropped 101.38 points or 1.60 percent to end at 6,238.01.

For the week, the Dow plummeted 2.9 percent, while the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the NASDAQ was down 2.2 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, as the White House announced new tariff rates on dozens of countries.

The new tariffs range from just 10 percent to as high as 41 percent, and the White House said a 40 percent levy will be imposed on goods that have been transshipped to evade applicable duties.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to the closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected job growth in the month of July.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on demand concerns for potentially reduced consumption amid new tariffs from the U.S. government. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.92 or 2.77 percent at $67.34 per barrel.