China Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 50 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,025-point plateau although it's likely to run out of steam on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains soft amidst uncertainty over interest rates and the health of the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses are likely to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index spiked 45.71 points or 1.53 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,025.51 after moving as low as 2,934.09. The Shenzhen Composite Index soared 47.53 points or 2.53 percent to end at 1,929.53.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.69 percent, while Bank of China rose 0.33 percent, China Construction Bank added 0.36 percent, China Merchants Bank retreated 1.43 percent, China Life Insurance soared 4.22 percent, Jiangxi Copper spiked 3.60 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) strengthened 1.46 percent, Yankuang Energy gained 0.53 percent, PetroChina eased 0.19 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) improved 0.46 percent, Huaneng Power increased 0.37 percent, China Shenhua Energy climbed 1.01 percent, Gemdale perked 0.09 percent, Poly Developments jumped 1.34 percent, China Vanke advanced 1.18 percent, China Fortune Land rallied 2.49 percent, Beijing Capital Development surged 4.71 percent and Bank of Communications was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before a late slide saw them finish with mild losses.

The Dow shed 28.34 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 29,210.85, while the NASDAQ eased 9.09 points or 0.09 percent to close at 10,417.10 and the S&P 500 fell 11.81 points or 0.33 percent to end at 3,577.03.

The late downward push came after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest monetary policy meeting, which showed that members expect interest rates to remain high till prices come down.

The members also lowered their projections for the economy and expect GDP to grow at just a 0.2 percent annualized pace in 2022 and just 1.2 percent in 2023, well below trend and big drop from 2021, which saw the strongest gains since 1984.

Also, the Labor Department said the Producer Price Index for final demand in the U.S. increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in September, rising for the first time in three months.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, falling for a third straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand due to slowing global growth after OPEC cut its demand forecast for this year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $2.02 or 2.26 percent at $87.33 a barrel.