China Stock Market May Hand Back Friday's Gains

The China stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had retreated more than 25 points or 0.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just beneath the 3,340-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft with continued pressure expected on the technology stocks, along with concerns over the economic recovery. The European and U.S. markets were down on Friday and the Asian markets are tipped to follow that lead.

The SCI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and oil and insurance companies.

For the day, the index soared 67.65 points or 2.07 percent to finish at 3,338.09 after trading between 3,268.53 and 3,338.32. The Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 32.92 points or 1.51 percent to end at 2,219.91.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China advanced 0.81 percent, while Bank of China climbed 0.93 percent, China Construction Bank jumped 1.46 percent, China Merchants Bank spiked 2.96 percent, Bank of Communications collected 0.86 percent, China Life Insurance skyrocketed 10.01 percent, Ping An Insurance was up 4.92 percent, PetroChina perked 0.96 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) gathered 0.76 percent, China Shenhua Energy rallied 3.16 percent, Gemdale soared 4.89 percent, Poly Developments surged 4.27 percent and China Vanke accelerated 4.42 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks initially showed a lack of direction on Friday but fell firmly under pressure as the day progressed, extending recent losses.

The Dow dropped 244.58 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 27,657.42, while the NASDAQ skidded 117.02 points or 1.07 percent to end at 10,793.28 and the S&P 500 fell 37.54 points or 1.12 percent to close at 3,319.47. For the week, the Dow fell 0.1 percent and the NASDAQ and S&P both sank 0.6 percent.

Traders also expressed concerns for the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement and economic assessment. With the elections less than two months away, lawmakers seem unlikely to pass another stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.The weakness on Wall Street was due to a continued slump by technology stocks, with tech giant Apple (AAPL) showing a significant drop. Big-name tech companies like Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) also posted notable losses.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a continued increase in its leading U.S. economic indicators in August. Also, the University of Michigan saw a bigger than expected improvement in consumer sentiment in September.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Friday as prices edged up following a sharp drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and OPEC's move to press for better compliance with output cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.14 or 0.3 percent at $41.11 a barrel.

Closer to home, China will provide September data for loan rates later this morning; one-year loan rates are called steady at 3.85 percent, while five-year rates are expected to be unchanged at 4.65 percent.