Lower Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has tracked lower in consecutive trading days, slumping more than 640 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 25,430-point plateau and it's likely to open to the downside again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The Hang Seng finished sharply lower on Tuesday as the finance, technology, property and energy companies were mostly in the red.

For the day, the index tumbled 331.17 points or 1.29 percent to finish at 25,434.23 after trading between 25,386.58 and 25,820.31.

Among the actives, Alibaba Group weakened 1.63 percent, while Alibaba Health Info fell 0.74 percent, ANTA Sports sank 1.29 percent, China Life Insurance plummeted 4.13 percent, China Mengniu Dairy declined 1.86 percent, China Resources Land plunged 3.77 percent, CITIC contracted 1.79 percent, CNOOC stumbled 2.41 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical added 0.53 percent, Galaxy Entertainment dropped 1.40 percent, Haier Smart Home retreated 2.03 percent, Hang Lung Properties slid 0.56 percent, Henderson Land gained 0.28 percent, Hong Kong & China Gas shed 1.13 percent, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China collected 0.16 percent, JD.com lost 1.12 percent, Lenovo skidded 1.51 percent, Li Auto crashed 2.80 percent, Li Ning improved 0.89 percent, Meituan tumbled 2.16 percent, New World Development slumped 1.67 percent, Nongfu Spring dipped 0.55 percent, Techtronic Industries surrendered 2.61 percent, Xiaomi Corporation cratered 3.10 percent and WuXi Biologics jumped 1.88 percent.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and fairly flat and stayed that way through the session.

The Dow dropped 179.03 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 47,560.29, while the NASDAQ rose 30.58 points or 0.13 percent to close at 23,576.49 and the S&P 500 eased 6.00 points or 0.09 percent to end at 6,840.51.

Traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, there is considerable uncertainty about the longer-term outlook for rates.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to the wording of the Fed's accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. edged slightly higher in October.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday as Iraq resumed crude flow from Lukoil's West Qurna oil fields while the U.S. dollar gained ground after job data from the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.66 or 1.12 percent at $58.22 per barrel.