China Stock Market Expected To Open Under Pressure On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 40 points or 1.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,130-point plateau and it may take further damage on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uninspired thanks to uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the financials and properties were mitigated by support from the energy companies.

For the day, the index shed 19.26 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 3.128.48 after trading between 3,126.17 and 3,144.99. The Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 23.95 points or 1.33 percent to end at 1,772.82.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China perked 0.19 percent, while Bank of China collected 0.67 percent, China Construction Bank rose 0.28 percent, China Merchants Bank dropped 0.86 percent, Bank of Communications rallied 1.46 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.20 percent, Jiangxi Copper skidded 1.17 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) sank 0.78 percent, Yankuang Energy surged 3.79 percent, PetroChina was up 0.10 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.78 percent, Huaneng Power slumped 0.87 percent, China Shenhua Energy soared 3.06 percent, Gemdale plummeted 5.63 percent, Poly Developments tanked 3.13 percent and China Vanke plunged 4.26 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but ultimately wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 172.13 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 39,056.39, while the NASDAQ sank 29.80 points or 0.18 percent to close at 16,302.76 and the S&P 500 eased 0.03 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,187.67.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following Tuesday's remarks by Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari.

Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an extended period and said he couldn't rule out another rate increase.

The Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower rates sometime in the third quarter, however, with CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicating an 83.5 percent chance rates will be lower by September.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories rose last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.99 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will see April results for imports, exports and trade balance later this morning. Imports are expected to rise 6.0 percent on year after slumping 1.9 percent in March. Exports are called higher by an annual 1.0 percent after tumbling 7.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is seen at $81.40 billion, up from $58.55 billion a month earlier.