China Shares May Open Under Water On Monday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, improving more than 70 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just above the 3,300-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on inflation and tariff concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the properties and resource stocks, although the financials were soft.

For the day, the index advanced 33.01 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 3,303.67 after trading between 3,262.51 and 3,324.43. The Shenzhen Composite Index rallied 31.69 points or 1.61 percent to finish at 1,996.24.

Among the actives, Bank of China fell 0.38 percent, while China Construction Bank lost 0.48 percent, Agricultural Bank of China shed 0.40 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 1.02 percent, Jiangxi Copper accelerated 1.78 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) rallied 2.22 percent, Yankuang Energy strengthened 1.21 percent, PetroChina improved 0.73 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) rose 0.33 percent, Huaneng Power perked 0.15 percent, China Shenhua Energy eased 0.15 percent, Gemdale spiked 3.29 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.93 percent, China Vanke climbed 1.01 percent, China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly slipped under water and finished the session with sizeable losses.

The Dow stumbled 444.20 points or 0.99 percent to finish at 44,303.40, while the NASDAQ slumped 268.60 points or 1.36 percent to close at 19,523.40 and the S&P 500 sank 57.58 points or 0.95 percent to end at 6,025.99. For the week, the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 percent, while the Dow and the NASDAQ both fell 0.5 percent.

The weakness that emerged early in the session came after the University of Michigan released a report showing consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated in February amid a surge by year-ahead inflation expectations.

Stocks saw further downside after President Donald Trump said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries this week, with the U.S. imposing tariffs on imports equal to the rates imposed on American exports.

Traders were also reacting to mixed U.S. jobs data, with a closely watched Labor Department report showing weaker than expected job growth in January but an unexpected decrease in the unemployment rate.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Iran's crude exports, although a stronger dollar limited oil's gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.39 or 0.5 percent at $71.00 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 2 percent in the week.