Losing Streak May Continue For Hong Kong Stock Market

The Hong Kong stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, stumbling almost 400 points or 2.5 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just beneath the 16,650-point plateau and it’s looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising treasury yields and ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks, while the technology companies were mixed.

For the day, the index stumbled 184.25 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 16,646.05 after trading between 16,617.03 and 16,941.91.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group sank 1.46 percent, while Alibaba Health Info lost 092 percent, ANTA Sports surrendered 3.80 percent, China Life Insurance retreated 1.90 percent, China Mengniu Dairy tumbled 3.38 percent, China Resources Land dropped 1.61 percent, CITIC advanced 0.83 percent, CNOOC rose 0.31 percent, Country Garden slumped 1.83 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical tanked 4.05 percent, Galaxy Entertainment fell 0.37 percent, Henderson Land was up 0.24 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas added 0.75 percent, JD.com declined 1.89 percent, Lenovo surged 3.02 percent, Li Ning plunged 4.83 percent, Meituan skidded 1.65 percent, New World Development stumbled 2.16 percent, Techtronic Industries jumped 1.53 percent, Xiaomi Corporation gained 0.40 percent, WuXi Biologics plummeted 23.79 percent and Hang Lung Properties and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, pared their losses but still ended firmly in the red.

The Dow dropped 41.06 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 36,204.44, while the NASDAQ slumped 119.54 points or 0.84 percent to close at 14,185.49 and the S&P 500 sank 24.85 points or 0.54 percent to end at 4,569.78.

A rebound by treasury yields contributed to the weakness on Wall Street, as the yield on the benchmark ten-year note bounced off its lowest levels in three months.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

In economic news, The Commerce Department released a report showing factory orders pulled back by much more than expected in the month of October.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday, pushing the most active futures contract to a nearly three-week low amid worries about the outlook for demand and skepticism about OPEC output cuts. The dollar’s rise also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.03 or 1.4 percent at $73.04 a barrel, the lowest settlement since November 16.

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