Hong Kong Bourse May Halt Losing Streak On Monday

The Hong Kong stock market has closed lower in four straight sessions, slumping more than 750 points or 4.4 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 17,200-point plateau although it my find traction on Monday.

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

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the property, finance and technology sectors.

For the day, the index plummeted 308.04 points or 1.76 percent to finish at 17,203.26 after trading between 17,177.53 and 17,350.87.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group tumbled 3.10 percent, while Alibaba Health Info fell 1.46 percent, ANTA Sports was down 0.77 percent, China Life Insurance weakened 2.46 percent, China Mengniu Dairy plunged 3.80 percent, China Resources Land dropped 2.08 percent, CITIC lost 1.77 percent, CNOOC added 0.16 percent, Country Garden stumbled 3.07 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical eased 0.29 percent, Galaxy Entertainment plummeted 6.46 percent, Hang Lung Properties shed 1.90 percent, Henderson Land slipped 1.20 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas sank 2.03 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dipped 0.81 percent, JD.com declined 3.04 percent, Lenovo gave away 0.33 percent, Li Ning slid 1.40 percent, Meituan tanked 3.74 percent, New World Development skidded 2.15 percent, Techtronic Industries slumped 2.83 percent, Xiaomi Corporation retreated 2.91 percent and WuXi Biologics surrendered 3.08 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to advance as the day progressed, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 391.20 points or 1.15 percent to finish at 34,283.10, while the NASDAQ rallied 276.71 points or 2.05 percent to end at 13,798.11 and the S&P 500 jumped 67.89 points or 1.56 percent to close at 4,415.24. For the week, the NASDAQ shot up 2.4 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent and the Dow climbed 0.7 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came as traders shrugged off concerns about the outlook for interest rates sparked by remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. Powell said the Fed is unsure rates are at a restrictive level to bring inflation down to 2 percent and warned the central bank would not hesitate to resume raising rates.

Despite Powell’s comments, CME Group’s FedWatch Tool currently still suggests the Fed is likely to leave interest rates over the next several months before cutting rates in mid-2024.

Stocks initially benefited from a pullback by treasury yields, which surged in afternoon trading on Thursday following a disappointing 30-year bond auction as well as Powell’s comments. But the major averages continued to advance over the even though yields rebounded.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Friday, but the most active oil futures contract still suffered a third weekly loss as the disruption threats continued to fade. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $1.43 or 1.9 percent at $77.17 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed more than 4 percent in the week.

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