(RTTNews) - The losing streak has stretched to four sessions now for the Thai stock market, which has plunged more than 30 points or 4.6 percent in the process. The Stock Exchange of Thailand crashed through support at 680 points, and now analysts are predicting more weakness when the market opens for business on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets calls for slight weakness, thanks to a mild retreat in the price of commodities - except for gold - while properties, financials and technology stocks could fall under some pressure. The European and U.S. markets ended slightly lower, and the Asian bourses are also tipped to trend to the downside.

The SET finished sharply lower on Tuesday, thanks to heavy losses among the energy producers and the financials.

For the day, the index plunged 14.19 points or 2.06 percent to finish at the daily low of 676.22 after peaking at 692.08. Volume was 2.599 billion shares worth 16.667 billion baht. There were 314 decliners and 61 gainers, with 77 stocks finishing unchanged.

Among the decliners, energy giant PTT was down 3.49 percent, while PTT Exploration and Production fell 2.33 percent, coal producer Banpu eased 0.40 percent and Kasikornbank shed 0.62 percent.

Wall Street offers a modestly soft lead as stocks closed lower by slim margins on Tuesday, with the day’s light volume limiting reaction to a batch of largely lackluster economic data. The major averages all closed in negative territory, offsetting a small portion of yesterday’s strong gains.

Initial weakness in the equity markets came as traders reacted negatively to the Commerce Department’s downward revision to the pace of GDP growth in the third quarter. The adjustment was slightly sharper economists had anticipated, although the data continued to show growth in the economy. The report said that GDP increased by an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter compared to the 3.5 percent growth that had been reported last month. Economists had been expecting the pace of GDP growth to be revised down to about 2.9 percent.

Further, Standard and Poor’s said that home prices in the twenty major metropolitan areas in the U.S. decreased at a slower annual rate in the month of September, but the pace of decline was still slightly faster than forecast.

Stocks remained negative despite the release of a Conference Board report in mid-morning trading showing that the consumer confidence index rose to 49.5 in November from an upwardly revised 48.7 in October. The increase surprised economists, who had expected the index to edge down to 47.5 from the 47.7 originally reported for the previous month.

This afternoon, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the November Federal Open Market Committee Meeting, revealing a general consensus that a weak labor market will keep inflation subdued as the economy recovers.

Looking ahead, the Fed unemployment projections remained relatively unchanged from the June projections. The central bank revealed expected unemployment levels of 9.3 percent to 9.7 percent for 2010 and 8.2 percent to 8.6 percent for 2011. With the labor market continuing to weigh on the economy, the committee agreed to keep interest rates at near zero levels for an extended period.

While the Dow and the S&P 500 briefly peeked above the unchanged line in the latter part of the trading day, the major averages all closed in the red. The Dow closed down by 17.24 points or 0.2 percent at 10,433.71, the NASDAQ fell by 6.83 points or 0.3 percent to 2,169.18 and the S&P 500 slipped by 0.59 points or 0.1 percent to 1,105.65.

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Posted in Categories: Eurozone, Releases, Stocks, USA.

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