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☆ China economy: All-important property market shows no sign of rebound in new year
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New property sales reached a total of 1.06 trillion yuan ($147 billion) in the first two months of this year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. The drop also marks a much faster pace of decline from the year-ago period, when new property sales dipped just 0.1%. Property investment fell 9% in the January-to-February period, which was faster than the 5.7% decrease registered during the same period last year. “The correction in property construction is still in its early stages,” Capital Economics analysts said in a research note on Monday. The growth in factory output might be driven by strong exports demand.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN —, “, ”, Louise Loo, ” Loo, Zhiwei Zhang Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, National Bureau of Statistics, Capital, Catering, “, Oxford Economics Locations: China, Hong Kong

☆ Premarket stocks: The rent is too damn high. It’s keeping interest rates elevated, too
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

In short, the rent is too damn high — and it’s keeping inflation and interest rates elevated alongside it. We’ll see if they’re right on Tuesday morning when February’s CPI data is due out. “Shelter inflation has been a big focal point for the market,” they wrote in a note on Monday. “We remain confident that [rent prices] will flatline in 2024, rather than fall,” Capital Economics analyst Thomas Ryan wrote in a recent note. That means a current deceleration in rent prices won’t be fully factored into inflation data until February 2025.

Persons: Greg McBride, ”, Jerome Powell, “ It’s, Powell, aren’t, “, Thomas Ryan, Ritti Singh, Singh, won’t, isn’t, Goldman Sachs, Clare Duffy, Reddit, it’s, That’s, Matt Egan, Joe Biden, Bespoke’s Paul Hickey, ” Hickey Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Federal Reserve, CPI, Bank of America, ” Capital, Housing Justice, Fed, Dallas Fed, AAA, Federal, Investment Locations: New York

☆ Kiwi birds born in New Zealand’s capital for first time in over a century
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Tara Subramaniam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The two new chicks come just a year after the Capital Kiwi Project reintroduced the country’s iconic national bird to the city of around 400,000 people. The brown kiwi is one of New Zealand’s most common kiwi species, but according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, the birds could be extinct in the wild within two generations without adequate conservation and support. Another 18 brown kiwi chicks are expected to hatch as part of the Capital Kiwi Project, which hopes to restore a large-scale wild population of kiwi to New Zealand’s capital. 95% of wild born kiwi in New Zealand are killed before they reach adulthood, according to Save the Kiwi. Where they get hammered is stoats eating the chicks before they get up to their fighting weight,” Capital Kiwi Project team leader Paul Ward told CNN earlier this year.

Persons: Paul Ward, Ward Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Capital Kiwi Project, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, Capital Kiwi, Kiwi, New Zealand Department of Conservation, ”, Kiwi Project, CNN Locations: Hong Kong, Wellington, New Zealand, Makara, Wellington’s, Zealand

☆ China slips back into deflation in October after pork prices plunged
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Manav Tanneeru | Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —Consumer prices in China fell more than expected last month, sliding the country back into deflation and renewing concerns about the strength of the world’s second largest economy. As China’s most consumed meat, pork has an outsized weighting in the consumer price index. He said deflation was a “pernicious” situation characterized by a decline in consumer prices as well as the prices of assets and wages, leading to a sharp slowdown in economic activity. But consumer prices recovered in August. This drop “reflects uncertainty around the solidity of China’s recovery,” HSBC Greater China economist Erin Xin noted in a report.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Robert Carnell, ”, Erin Xin Organizations: Hong Kong CNN —, National Bureau of Statistics, Economics, Asia Pacific, ING, ” HSBC Locations: China, Hong Kong

BANGKOK (AP) — Markets fell in Europe and Asia after China reported Wednesday that its economy grew at a 4.9% annual pace in July-September, down from 6.3% in the previous quarter. The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.2% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.1% lower. Weak global demand and the property industry remain the biggest shadows overhanging the economy in the near term, economists said. “The wider data on the property sector remained weak, although green shoots are appearing,” Capital Economics said in a report. Bank of New York Mellon rose 3.8% after it also reported stronger profit than expected for the latest quarter.

Persons: Germany's DAX, Wyndham, Brent, Writers Zen Soo, Stan Choe Organizations: —, CAC, FTSE, Dow Jones, Bureau of Statistics, Nikkei, Nasdaq, U.S, Treasury, Nvidia, Bank of America, Wall, Bank of New, Bank of New York Mellon, Wyndham Hotels, Resorts, ”, New York Mercantile Exchange, AP, Writers Zen Locations: BANGKOK, Europe, Asia, China, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bank of New York, Iran

☆ Shanghai, Beijing capital controls relaxed as China entices badly needed foreign investment
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Shanghai’s free trade zone is one of China’s largest and is slightly bigger than the city of Seattle. The policies are aimed at attracting foreign investment to build an open economy, the government said. Thursday’s measures are the latest effort by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government to woo foreign capital and stabilize ties with the West. China has made a series of moves recently to stabilize foreign trade and investment, including cutting a tax on stock trading for the first time since 2008. The latest relaxation in capital controls is part of a policy package announced by Beijing and Shanghai, the country’s two biggest cities, to facilitate foreign trade and investment.

Persons: Tesla’s Gigafactory, Stringer, Xi Jinping’s, JP Morgan, Tesla Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, HP, AstraZeneca, Getty, State Administration of Foreign Exchange, American Chamber of Commerce, People’s Bank of, HSBC Locations: China, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Seattle, BlackRock, AFP, People’s Bank of China, Macao, Taiwan

☆ Larry Fink’s Bet on Saudi Oil Money Is Also His Latest E.S.G. Woe
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Maureen Farrell | More About Maureen Farrell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Larry Fink, the chief executive of the giant asset manager BlackRock, has been broadcasting a message to corporate America: Environmental, social and governance goals should be core to how companies do business. So when BlackRock announced in July that it would appoint Amin Nasser, the head of the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, to its board, investors and politicians immediately called out Mr. Fink on what they said was his hypocrisy. It’s the latest example of the increasingly difficult situation Mr. Fink finds himself in: His championing of E.S.G. has drawn accusations of “woke” capitalism from the right while his embrace of energy companies has upset those on the left. The political blowback has made it more challenging for Mr. Fink to do his day job of finding new sources of money that BlackRock — which oversees $9 trillion in assets — needs to drive growth and keep shareholders happy.

Persons: Larry Fink, Amin Nasser, Fink, ”, Giuseppe Bivona, Fink’s, “ Organizations: BlackRock, Aramco, Bluebell Locations: America, London

☆ How AI’s astonishing productivity gains could help curb inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Experts say the technology will help address a steep and prolonged slowdown in productivity growth in many Western economies, which has kept businesses’ costs higher than they would otherwise be and made inflation harder to tame. “AI has huge potential to increase productivity,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said at the company’s Investor Day last month. Productivity gains in Europe could be similar, albeit slightly smaller, Brynjolfsson told CNN. In some cases, productivity gains could be achieved sooner. That’s because most generative AI tools live on the internet — “the technology we already have on our desks” — making them widely accessible, Brynjolfsson said.

Persons: chatbot, —, Smart, Hannes P Albert, Bill Gates, Larry Fink, Erik Brynjolfsson, ” David McMillan, ” McMillan, Hollie Adams, Neil Shearing, Martin Neil Baily, Anton Korinek, Brynjolfsson, Goldman Sachs, ” Organizations: London CNN, Microsoft, BlackRock, CNN, Stanford University, Organisation for Economic Cooperation, Development, OECD, University of Stirling, Bloomberg, Getty, “, National Statistics, IBM, Capital, Brookings Institute, University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, America, Productivity, Google, SAP, Goldman Locations: East, Scotland, London, United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Wimbledon

☆ Where to go this summer: A dozen destination ideas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Marnie Hunter | Jane Levere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Peru"Peruvians are welcoming travelers back with open arms," says travel one travel expert. And perhaps most importantly, the city offers excellent value, in part because it will be the winter/low season there during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. It’s home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including megalithic temples that date to the 4th millennium BC. Although summer is the rainy season, Gellis says showers are often brief and intermittent. AlbaniaAlbania is a Mediterranean gem that’s likely to be less crowded this summer than Greece and Croatia, says Joao Donadel, another EMBARK Beyond travel advisor.

☆ China's non-manufacturing PMI jumps to decade high as economic recovery gets back on track
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —A key index measuring the strength of China’s massive services sector jumped to its highest level in more than a decade, as the country’s economic recovery gained traction. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) soared to 58.2 in March from 56.3 in February, marking the best level since 2011, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). “The official PMIs suggest that China’s rapid reopening recovery remained robust this month,” Capital Economics analysts wrote on Friday. In a keynote speech, the newly minted premier told more than a thousand international business and political leaders that China’s economic growth was “strong,” with March’s performance even better than January and February’s. Top economic officials have also been trying to reassure both foreign business and the domestic private sector.

☆ Small US banks see record drop in deposits after SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Deposits at small US banks dropped by a record amount following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, data released on Friday by the Federal Reserve showed. Deposits at small banks fell $119 billion to $5.46 trillion in the week ended March 15, which was more than twice the previous record drop and the biggest decline as a percent of overall deposits since the week ended March 16, 2007. Borrowings at small banks, defined as all but the biggest 25 commercial US banks, increased by $253 billion to a record $669.6 billion, the Fed’s weekly data showed. The rise equates to about half as much as the deposit decline at small banks, suggesting some of the cash may have gone into money market funds or other instruments. It was unclear if the shift in deposits out of small banks will persist.

☆ China's reopening could boost global growth — and worsen inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —China’s swift reopening after nearly three years of strict coronavirus controls could provide a much-needed boost to global economic growth, but may also stoke inflation just as it has shown signs of falling back. The revival of the world’s second largest economy — and its biggest consumer of commodities — threatens to push up global prices for fuel, industrial metals and food this year. The speed of the reopening, as well as indications that infections may have already peaked, has been surprising, analysts told CNN. Yet, if global food and energy prices start rising again, that could feed through into higher consumer prices. China’s reopening could bump up demand for agricultural goods, while the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history.

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