China Stock Market May Run Out Of Steam On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The China stock market has climbed higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 60 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Shanghai Composite Index now rests just shy of the 3,245-point plateau, although the rally may stall on Wednesday.

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

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

For the day, the index improved 43.53 points or 1.36 percent to finish at 3,243.45 after trading between 3,203.82 and 3,244.64. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 25.19 points or 1.21 percent to end at 2,113.27.

Among the actives, Bank of China collected 0.66 percent, while China Construction Bank rose 0.18 percent, China Merchants Bank tumbled 1.78 percent, China Life Insurance and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) both strengthened 1.61 percent, Jiangxi Copper jumped 1.96 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) improved 1.78 percent, Yankuang Energy climbed 1.20 percent, PetroChina advanced 0.90 percent, Huaneng Power surged 4.59 percent, China Shenhua Energy gathered 0.98 percent, Gemdale soared 3.91 percent, Poly Developments rallied 2.38 percent, China Vanke spiked 3.96 percent, China Fortune Land accelerated 2.44 percent and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages quickly moved lower on Tuesday, rebounded midday but then faced renewed consolidation that lasted throughout the rest of the session.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent weakness.

The volatility on the day also came amid a surge in treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note jumping to its highest levels in almost three months.

Potentially adding to the worries about interest rates, the Institute for Supply Management said service sector activity in the U.S. unexpectedly grew at a slightly faster rate in August. The report is a positive sign for the economy but may have led to concerns the Federal Reserve will see the data as an indication that it can continue to aggressively raise interest rates.

Oil futures settled barely higher on Tuesday after the decision by OPEC+ to cut output by 100,000 barrels per day in October, although the dollar's uptick limited oil's upside. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by a penny or $0.09% at $86.88 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will provide August numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. Imports are expected to rise 1.1 percent on year, easing from 2.3 percent in July. Exports are called higher by an annual 12.8 percent, down from 18.0 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $92.7 billion, down from $101.26 billion a month earlier.