Soft Start Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished lower in two straight sessions, sinking almost 200 points or 1 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 19,560-point plateau and it's expected to open under water again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of key U.S. employment data later today. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index stumbled 182.02 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 19,560.44 after trading between 19,466.69 and 19,642.73.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group plunged 2.44 percent, while Alibaba Health Info plummeted 3.28 percent, ANTA Sports lost 0.96 percent, China Life Insurance slumped 1.32 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tanked 2.33 percent, China Resources Land skidded 1.27 percent, CITIC sank 1.00 percent, CNOOC fell 0.90 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical weakened 1.40 percent, Galaxy Entertainment shed 0.98 percent, Haier Smart Home dipped 0.56 percent, Hang Lung Properties was down 0.47 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas slid 0.68 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 1.06 percent, JD.com and Nongfu Spring both eased 0.14 percent, Lenovo declined 1.71 percent, Li Auto retreated 1.82 percent, Li Ning tumbled 2.19 percent, Meituan crashed 3.63 percent, New World Development slipped 0.62 percent, Techtronic Industries stumbled 1.60 percent, Xiaomi Corporation rallied 1.20 percent, WuXi Biologics surrendered 2.26 percent and Henderson Land was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened flat on Thursday and hugged the line for much of the day before slipping under water heading into the close.

The Dow slumped248.33 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 44,765.71, while the NASDAQ shed 34.86 points or 0.18 percent to close at 19,700.26 and the S&P 600 fell 11.38 points or 0.19 percent to end at 6,075.11.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs data could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.

While traders have recently expressed greater confidence the Fed will lower rates by another 25 basis points at the December meeting, there remains uncertainty about the likelihood of continued rate cuts at future meetings.

Crude oil prices dipped on Thursday, weighed by weak demand from China and rising production in the United States - although the downside was limited by OPEC's decision to delay a production increase. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.24 or 0.4 percent at $68.30 a barrel.