Higher Open Called For Hong Kong Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Hong Kong stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 250 points or 1 percent. The Hang Seng Index now sits just above the 25,200-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is mostly positive on easing tensions in the Middle East and an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Hang Seng finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, resource stocks and technology companies.

For the day, the index rallied 243.95 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 25,207.18 after trading between 24,938.34 and 25,276.96.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Monday but quickly slumped and hugged the line for the rest of the day, ending mixed.

The Dow jumped 262.83 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 52,210.08, while the NASDAQ sank 43.74 points or 0.18 percent to close at 24,932.08 and the S&P 500 perked 1.20 points or 0.02 percent to end at 7,413.18.

The initial strength on Wall Street came amid an extended pullback by the price of crude oil, which plummeted on Monday after the U.S. halted nearly two weeks of military attacks against Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $7.09 or 7.94 percent at $82.22 per barrel.

Treasury yields slumped along with the price of crude oil, easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

The subsequent pullback by the markets came amid substantial weakness among semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling by 4.8 percent. Energy and computer hardware stocks also weighed.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods rebounded by much less than expected in the month of June.