Soft Start Seen For Hong Kong Stock Market

The Hong Kong stock market on Tuesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 475 points or 2.4 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 20,650-point plateau although it’s likely to open under pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid mixed economic and earnings data. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index dropped 131.94 points or 0.63 percent to finish art 20,650.51 after trading between 20,559.08 and 20,742.39.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group shed 0.63 percent, while Alibaba Health Info slid 0.51 percent, ANTA Sports plummeted 7.44 percent, China Life Insurance soared 2.76 percent, China Mengniu Dairy retreated 1.34 percent, China Resources Land skidded 0.89 percent, CITIC slumped 0.93 percent, CNOOC stumbled 1.08 percent, Country Garden plunged 2.78 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 0.80 percent, Hang Lung Properties declined 1.62 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas fell 0.58 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 0.69 percent, JD.com lost 0.60 percent, Lenovo tanked 1.82 percent, Li Ning tumbled 1.67 percent, Meituan eased 0.22 percent, New World Development was down 0.47 percent, Techtronic Industries gained 0.24 percent, Xiaomi Corporation surrendered 1.74 percent, WuXi Biologics added 0.46 percent and CSPC Pharmaceutical and Henderson Land were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little guidance as the major averages opened mixed and hugged the unchanged line throughout the session, finally ending on opposite sides and barely moved.

The Dow shed 10.55 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,976.63, while the NASDAQ dipped 4.31 points or 0.04 percent to close at 12,153.41 and the S&P 600 rose 3.55 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,154.87.

Traders were unhappy with remarks from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who said that he favored continued interest-rate hikes to counter persistent inflation and added that recession fears are overblown.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. housing starts slid by 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.420 million in March from a revised rate of 1.432 million in February.

In earnings news, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and Netflix all beat the street, while Goldman Sachs and United Airlines missed expectations.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as traders assessed Chinese GDP numbers and data showing a drop in eurozone and German investor sentiment. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May rose $0.03 at $80.86 a barrel.