Hong Kong Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has closed lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 450 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 17,510-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the property sector and technology stocks.

For the day, the index dropped 57.17 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 17,511.29 after trading between 17,457.00 and 17,617.27.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 2.84 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slid 0.42 percent, ANTA Sports skidded 1.09 percent, China Life Insurance sank 0.94 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 3.29 percent, China Resources Land surrendered 3.03 percent, CITIC lost 0.59 percent, CNOOC added 0.64 percent, Country Garden plummeted 7.61 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical stumbled 2.28 percent, Galaxy Entertainment declined 1.67 percent, Henderson Land dropped 0.95 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 0.92 percent, JD.com retreated 1.54 percent, Lenovo slumped 1.30 percent, Li Ning plunged 4.03 percent, New World Development fell 0.54 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.41 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rallied 2.35 percent, WuXi Biologics weakened 1.18 percent and Hang Lung Properties, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Meituan and Haier Smart Home were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened flat on Thursday and hugged the line for the first half of the day before turning lower to end solidly in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.33 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 33,891.94, while the NASDAQ sank 128.97 points or 0.94 percent to end at 13,521.45 and the S&P 500 lost 35.43 points or 0.81 percent to close at 4,347.35.

Stocks showed a notable drop in early afternoon trading after the Treasury Department revealed this month's auction of $24 billion worth of 30-year bonds attracted below average demand, triggering a surge in treasury yields.

The markets saw further downside as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed the outlook for U.S. monetary policy, saying the central bank "will not hesitate" to resume raising interest rates if it becomes appropriate.

Participating in a policy panel in Washington, D.C., Powell acknowledged that U.S. inflation has slowed over the past year but pointed out it remains well above the Fed's 2 percent target.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday after two straight sessions of decline on concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December rose $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $75.74 a barrel, due to some short-covering and bargain hunting.

Closer to home, Hong Kong will release Q3 numbers for gross domestic product. GDP is called unchanged from Q2, higher by 0.1 percent on quarter and 4.1 percent on year.