China Stock Market May Run Out Of Steam On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, improving almost 40 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,250-point plateau although the rally may stall on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautious ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the resource stocks and mixed performances from the financial and property sectors.

For the day, the index advanced 22.46 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 3,252.63 after trading between 3,221.71 and 3,260.01. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 23.08 points or 1.21 percent to end at 1,936.34.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China perked 0.15 percent, while Bank of China and China Life Insurance both shed 0.56 percent, China Construction Bank fell 0.36 percent, China Merchants Bank collected 1.07 percent, Agricultural Bank of China slid 0.40 percent, Jiangxi Copper jumped 1.78 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) soared 3.28 percent, Yankuang Energy climbed 1.21 percent, PetroChina lost 0.48 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rose 0.17 percent, Huaneng Power rose 0.32 percent, China Shenhua Energy strengthened 1.74 percent, Gemdale tanked 2.55 percent, Poly Developments added 0.36 percent and China Vanke gained 0.41 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened barely higher on Friday but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the session in the red.

The Dow stumbled 140.85 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 44,424.25, while the NASDAQ sank 99.40 points or 0.50 percent to close at 19,954.30 and the S&P 500 fell 17.47 points or 0.29 percent to end at 6,101.24. For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow surged 2.2 percent and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 both jumped 1.7 percent.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

Recent economic data has led to concerns about the Fed leaving rates on hold for a prolonged period, but many economists still expect the central bank to resume cutting rates sometime in the first half of the year.

On U.S. economic front, data from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated by more than estimated in January. Also, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales jumped much more than expected in December

Oil futures were roughly flat on Friday, continuing to look for support after the Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell less than expected last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $74.66 a barrel to snap a six-day losing streak. WTI crude futures lost 3 percent in the week.

Closer to home, China will see January results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes from the National Bureau of Statistics later this morning. In December, their scores were 50.1, 52.2 and 52.2, respectively. China also will see December data for industrial profits; in November, profits were down 4.7 percent on year.