China Shares May Head South Again On Friday

The China stock market on Thursday snapped the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 30 points or 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 3,280-point plateau although it’s expected to see renewed selling pressure on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is slightly soft ahead of key U.S. employment data later today. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The SCI finished modestly higher on Thursday as gains from the financials were capped by weakness from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index advanced 18.77 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 3,280.46 after trading between 3,247.27 and 3,280.86. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 5.58 points or 0.27 percent to end at 2,061.64.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China climbed 1.07 percent, while Bank of China strengthened 1.31 percent, China Construction Bank collected 0.67 percent, China Merchants Bank jumped 1.91 percent, Bank of Communications advanced 0.88 percent, China Life Insurance soared 3.91 percent, Jiangxi Copper dropped 0.89 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) shed 0.63 percent, Yankuang Energy eased 0.06 percent, PetroChina and China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) both lost 0.66 percent and Huaneng Power climbed 1.23 percent.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower on Thursday, rallied midday but sank back into the red heading into the close.

The Dow shed 66.63 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 35,215.89, while the NASDAQ dipped 13.73 points or 0.10 percent to close at 13,858.71 and the S&P 500 fell 11.50 points or 0.25 percent to end at 4,501.89.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected continued concerns about U.S. debt after credit rating agency Fitch Ratings unexpectedly downgraded the United States’ credit rating earlier this week.

Selling pressure remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week. Also, the Institute for Supply Management reported a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in July.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Thursday after Saudi Arabia announced that it would extend its production cut to next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September climbed $2.06 or 2.6 percent at $81.66 a barrel.