China Shares Tipped To Open In The Red

BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - The China stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 120 points or 3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index now sits just above the 4,080-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity ahead of key U.S. employment data. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and roughly flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The SCI finished slightly lower on Thursday as losses from the financials and resource stocks were offset by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index dipped 2.79 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 4,082.98 after trading between 4,067.12 and 4,093.87. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 4.46 points or 0.17 percent to end at 2,624.99.

Among the actives, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was down 0.77 percent, while Bank of China dropped 0.72 percent, Agricultural Bank of China slumped 0.67 percent, China Merchants Bank declined 1.35 percent, Bank of Communications sank 0.56 percent, China Life Insurance tanked 2.33 percent, Jiangxi Copper fell 0.45 percent, Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) stumbled 2.85 percent, Yankuang Energy jumped 1.42 percent, PetroChina skidded 1.01 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) lost 0.49 percent, Huaneng Power shed 0.40 percent, China Shenhua Energy added 0.46 percent, Gemdale rallied 2.54 percent, Poly Developments spiked 3.13 percent and China Vanke soared 3.59 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and spent much of the day on opposite sides of the line and ending the same way.

The Dow climbed 270.03 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 49,266.11, while the NASDAQ sank 104.26 points or 0.44 percent to end at 23,480.02 and the S&P 500 perked 0.51 points or 0.01 percent to close at 6,921.44.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The jobs data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its January 27-28 meeting but is seen as likely to cut rates by at least another quarter point in the coming months.

Ahead of the monthly jobs report, a report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged up slightly less than expected last week.

Crude oil prices skyrocketed on Thursday as data showed a decline in the U.S. crude inventories, offsetting global oversupply concerns and supporting prices. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was up $1.70 or 3.04 percent at $57.69 per barrel.

Closer to home, China will release December data for consumer and producer prices later today. Consumer prices are expected to rise 0.8 percent on year, up from 0.7 percent in November. Producer prices are ripped to decline an annual 1.5 percent after sinking 2.2 percent in the previous month.

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