China Stock Market Expected To Open Under Pressure On Friday

The China stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 70 points or 2.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,090-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is one of caution ahead of key inflation data later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The SCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index shed 19.34 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 3,091.68 after trading between 3,085.38 and 3,121.22. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 8.02 points or 0.46 percent to end at 1,726.12.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China shed 0.55 percent, while Bank of China dropped 0.90 percent, China Construction Bank lost 0.57 percent, China Merchants Bank sank 0.67 percent, Bank of Communications retreated 1.41 percent, China Life Insurance perked 0.03 percent, Jiangxi Copper plummeted 4.27 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) stumbled 1.78 percent, Yankuang Energy tanked 2.64 percent, PetroChina plunged 2.76 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) declined 1.21 percent, Huaneng Power surrendered 2.84 percent, China Shenhua Energy fell 0.83 percent, Gemdale crashed 4.61 percent, Poly Developments skidded 2.11 percent and China Vanke slumped 3.61 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened solidly lower on Thursday and remained well in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow plunged 330.06 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 38,111.48, while the NASDAQ tumbled 183.50 points or 1.08 percent to end at 16,737.08 and the S&P 500 sank 31.47 points or 0.60 percent to close at 5,235.48.

The weakness on Wall Street was fueled by concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later today, which includes readings said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

A nosedive by shares of Salesforce (CRM) weighed on the Dow, with the software company plunging 19.7 percent after reporting weaker than expected revenues and guidance.

In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits crept modestly higher last week. Also, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product was revised down to 1.3 percent in Q1 from 1.6 percent.

Oil futures ended sharply lower on Thursday as a jump in gasoline inventories weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.32 or 1.7 percent at $77.91 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will see May results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics later this morning; in April, their scores were 50.4, 51.2 and 51.7, respectively.