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☆ ‘White paper’ protests: China’s top stationery supplier says it’s still selling A4 sheets
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —The rare protests that spread across China over the weekend often featured demonstrators holding pieces of blank white paper, a phenomenon that has caused problems for the country’s top stationery chain. A4 refers to a standard paper size commonly used in countries outside of the United States and Canada. After M&G issued its filing, some social media users said they weren’t able to order A4 white paper sheets from the company’s online stores. Following the stock exchange filing, shares in M&G Stationery clawed back some losses, but were still down 1% at Monday’s close. ‘White paper’ protestsThe protests were triggered by a deadly fire last Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang.

☆ China’s ‘white paper’ protests cause headaches for country’s top stationery supplier
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —The rare protests that spread across China over the weekend often featured demonstrators holding pieces of blank white paper, a phenomenon that has caused problems for the country’s top stationery chain. M&G Stationery is based in Shanghai and sells its products in over 50 countries and regions around the world, according to the company’s website. After M&G issued its filing, some social media users said they weren’t able to order A4 white paper sheets from the company’s online stores. Following the stock exchange filing, shares in M&G Stationery clawed back some losses, but was still down 1% by Monday’s close. ‘White paper’ protestsThe protests were triggered by a deadly fire last Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang.

☆ Global markets fall after protests erupt in China over Covid lockdowns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Global markets fell on Monday after widespread protests in China against the country’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions roiled investor sentiment. The markets tumble comes after protests erupted across China in an unprecedented show of defiance against the country’s stringent and increasingly costly zero-Covid policy. US stock futures — an indication of how markets are likely to open — fell, with Dow futures down 0.3%, or 108 points. Oil prices dropped sharply, with investors concerned that surging Covid cases and protests in China may sap demand from one of the world’s largest oil consumers. US crude futures fell 2.7% to trade at $74.22 a barrel.

☆ China markets tank as protests erupt over Covid lockdowns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Nexperia and Elmos cases show how the US-China chip war is spilling over to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Last week, the new owner of Britain’s biggest chipmaker was ordered to unwind its takeover, just days after another chip factory sale was blocked in Germany. “These decisions mark a shift towards tougher stances regarding Chinese investment in critical industries in Europe,” said Xiaomeng Lu, director of geo‑technology at Eurasia Group. A worker in a clean room for silicon semiconductor wafer manufacturing at the Newport Wafer Fab, owned by Nexperia, in Newport, Wales on Aug. 18. A company sign of Elmos Semiconductor, seen on Nov. 9 in the German city of Dortmund. Both Britain and Germany have recently added rules that expand government oversight over such decisions, making outcomes harder to predict.

☆ Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffett further unwinds BYD investment in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

It’s the fifth major share sale by Berkshire (BERK) of BYD shares disclosed since August, according to public records. Before the first deal was disclosed in August, Berkshire had held 225 million shares of BYD for 14 years. The US conglomerate first bought BYD shares at an average of HK$8 ($1.02) apiece in 2008, with an investment of $230 million. Back then, BYD shares had fallen to a record low during the global financial crisis. Based on the latest exchange filing, the conglomerate has dumped more than 49 million BYD shares in the past four months.

☆ A house price slump is coming. Rising unemployment could make it much worse
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Brendon O'Hagan/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesNew Zealand is at the sharp end of a global housing market squeeze that has grim ramifications for the world economy. “In an ideal world, you’ll get a bit of froth blown off the top [of house prices] and everything is fine. “A decisive increase in unemployment is a very big danger for housing markets,” said Slater of Oxford Economics. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesA drag on the economyMost market watchers are not expecting a repeat of the 2008 housing market crash. But even a modest a fall in house prices will knock confidence, causing homeowners to cut back on spending.

☆ Guangzhou Covid-19: China locks down key transportation hub; markets fear economic fallout
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —China has locked down a major transportation hub in the south, as the country’s grapples with its largest nationwide Covid outbreak since April. The lockdown also follows rising cases in Beijing, which reported the country’s first Covid deaths in nearly six months. Asian markets and oil prices slid on Monday as investors fretted about the prospect of China re-tightening Covid rules. Guangzhou, one of China’s largest cities with nearly 19 million residents, imposed a five-day lockdown in Baiyun district, which is home to one of the country’s busiest airports. Goldman Sachs analysts said Monday that the latest news on China’s Covid management has been “confusing” to investors.

☆ Global investors are bullish again on China as Beijing switches to damage control
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A key index of Chinese stocks in New York jumped 15% during the same period. Some investment banks even upgraded their China growth forecasts following the policy changes. They want to correct the market’s perception of China’s economic outlook, as President Xi Jinping interacts with global leaders at G20,” it said. “I don’t think the long-term appetite for China and Hong Kong shares will return so quickly. The Nasdaq Golden China Index, a popular index tracking Chinese companies in New York, has plunged more than 33% so far in 2022.

☆ US-China meeting in Bali lays groundwork for stronger economic ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

That helps explain why expectations for Monday’s meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit were set so low. But to the surprise of many, the meeting featured televised images of smiling officials, handshakes, and a commitment to reopening lines of communication on urgent global issues. Analysts said the meeting could lay the groundwork for stronger ties between the world’s top economic powerhouses. Speaking after the three-hour meeting, Biden described it as an “open and candid” discussion, saying he planned to manage the China relationship “responsibly.”“We’re going to compete vigorously, but I’m not looking for conflict,” Biden told reporters. “The meeting met or exceeded the low expectations set by the Biden administration and was a mild positive for global stability,” he said.

☆ How the crypto fallout could affect you
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN Business —The crypto industry is still reeling from last week’s shocking death spiral of digital currency exchange FTX. While these funds say they had limited exposure to FTX, their inclusion points to a growing but alarming trend that could affect you even if you’re not a buyer of crypto yourself. What’s happening: Pension funds are increasingly investing in alternative assets in search of bigger returns. In the United States, public pension funds are facing serious challenges that threaten the retirement plans of millions of state and local government employees. It’s not just a trend that’s happening in the United States.

☆ China's real estate crisis could be over with new rescue plan. Property stocks are soaring
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Chinese authorities are making their biggest effort yet to end a crisis in the country’s vast real estate sector that has weighed heavily on the economy over the past year. Tao Wang, chief China economist at UBS, described the package of measures as a “turning point” for China’s property sector. Along with other policies announced earlier this year, it could inject more than 1 trillion yuan ($142 billion) into real estate, she estimated. In October, sales by the 100 biggest real estate developers contracted 26.5% from a year ago, according to a private survey by China Index Academy, a top real estate research firm. “Beijing’s zero-Covid strategy, despite some latest fine tuning, will continue to weigh on the property sector,” they added.

☆ Premarket stocks: Crypto is in crisis. It's not just because of FTX
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN Business —The stunning downfall of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, sent shockwaves through the crypto universe last week. Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old crypto titan and chief executive of FTX, watched billions of his fortune evaporate in a bankruptcy filing that shook the trillion-dollar industry to its core. Those efforts mean capital is drying up – and that’s not just bad for crypto but other asset classes including stocks, too. Cryptocurrencies enjoyed huge injections of money during the pandemic era thanks to the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy. “In all, the slowdown in global money growth looks set to continue over the coming year, with some contraction looking likely in the US,” wrote JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in a note.

London/Berlin CNN Business —The German government has blocked the sale of one of its semiconductor factories to a Chinese-owned tech company because of security concerns. Silex announced in December that it had signed an agreement with Elmos to buy the factory for €85 million ($85.4 million). Addressing the blocked chip deal, he stressed that “Germany is and will remain an open investment location” but that it was not “naive”. China’s chips under threatThe visit came just a month after the United States introduced stringent controls on chip exports to China, a move designed to protect its national security and bolster its domestic semiconductor industry. In early October, the Biden administration banned Chinese firms from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license.

☆ US curbs on China's microchip industry could throttle Xi Jinping's tech ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

One dramatic, and potentially disruptive aspect of the rules is the ban on American citizens and legal residents working with Chinese chip firms. The ban could lead to a mass resignation of top executives and core research staff working at Chinese chip firms, which will hit the industry hard, Dong from Georgetown University said. So far it’s not clear exactly how many American workers there are in China’s domestic chip industry. At Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), one of the country’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers, at least seven executives, including founder and chairman Gerald Yin, hold US citizenship, the latest company documents show. But some Western suppliers have already started preparing to halt sales to China in response to the US export curbs.

☆ Xi Jinping just became unassailable. Here’s why investors are running scared
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Xi’s preference for personal loyalty over technocratic competence bodes ill for China’s already bleak economic outlook, analysts said. “In effect, Xi Jinping establishes an echo chamber around his own ideas,” she said. People watch the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress in Huaibei, in China's eastern Anhui province. Li Qiang, the party boss of Shanghai who presided over the city’s chaotic two-month lockdown, is now the second-highest ranking party official after Xi. The NDRC is China’s top economic planner, responsible for drafting the country’s economic plans and overseeing major state investment projects.

☆ China's yuan tumbles to a new record low amid fears about Xi's third term
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

It then pared losses, trading at 7.33 by 1 pm Hong Kong time. On Monday, Chinese stocks plummeted in Hong Kong and New York, wiping out billions of dollars in their market value. International investors spooked by the outcome of the Communist Party’s leadership reshuffle dumped Chinese assets despite the release of stronger-than-expected GDP data. “Foreign investors took action to cut their exposure on Chinese assets,” he said, adding that the Chinese currency was faced with mounting capital outflow pressure. The Chinese yuan, together with other major global currencies, has weakened rapidly against the dollar in recent months.

☆ China GDP: 2022 Q3 data stronger-than-expected after Xi Jinping secures third term in power
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —China released stronger-than-expected GDP and other economic data on Monday, just a day after Xi Jinping clinched a historic third term in power following the conclusion of a major political gathering. But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HSI) Index, a key gauge of overseas investor sentiment on China, tumbled at Monday’s open and headed for its biggest losses in more than seven months. On Monday, Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index opened down and sank 4.6% in early trading, poised for its biggest daily decline since March. The Hang Seng Tech Index, which tracks 30 largest technology firms listed in Hong Kong, plunged nearly 6%. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index, which trades on the tightly controlled domestic market in China, dropped 0.5%.

☆ Chinese stocks tumble to multi-year lows in New York and Hong Kong amid party congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Chinese stocks have hit multi-year lows in New York and Hong Kong amid growing concerns about China’s rising Covid cases and economic outlook. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng (HSI) Index tumbled as much as 3% in Thursday’s morning trade. The fall comes just a day after the city’s leader, Chief Executive John Lee, promised to invest billions of dollars to bring global talent and businesses back to Hong Kong. The heavy decline followed a sharp sell-off in Chinese stocks listed on Wall Street overnight. “China’s National Party Congress failed to drive a positive catalyst, ” said Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist for IG Group, on Thursday.

☆ Premarket stocks: The strong dollar has an unexpected victim
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN Business —The strong dollar has been a headwind for blue chip US companies in the Dow and S&P 500 this year. And the Russell 2000, another index of mostly smaller companies, is down 25%, too. Also, the dollar is so strong — the US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the euro, pound, yen and several other currencies has soared 18% this year — it’s making foreign imports cheaper. But real estate stocks have been slammed by worries about a housing and office real estate slowdown. And multinational companies and foreign stocks will fare more poorly than smaller companies with little to no international exposure.

☆ Xi Jinping's Party Congress speech: yes to zero-Covid, no to market reforms?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Priorities presented at the political gathering of more than 2,000 party members will also set China’s trajectory for the next five years or even longer. In his speech Sunday, Xi struck a confident tone, highlighting China’s growing strength and rising influence under his first decade in power. China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the opening session of the 20th Chinese Communist Party's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 16, 2022. And China’s economy is in bad shape. Meantime, a comparison between this year’s speech and the last one delivered by Xi in 2017 at the 19th party congress revealed a potentially worrying trend.

“My forecast is for a further decline of 1.2% [on a quarterly basis for China’s GDP]. China’s GDP declined 2.6% in the second quarter from the previous one, reversing a 1.4% growth in the January-to-March period. Economists polled by Reuters have expected China’s GDP to expand by 3.4% in the third quarter from a year earlier. Many international organizations, including the IMF and World Bank, have recently downgraded China’s GDP growth forecasts for this year. Bennett expected the third-quarter GDP data to be released after the Party Congress.

☆ China's economy is 'in deep trouble' as Xi heads to Communist Party congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“Xi’s leadership is not causal for China’s economic rise,” said Sonja Opper, a professor at Bocconi University in Italy who studies China’s economy. Bloomberg/Getty ImagesThe International Monetary Fund recently cut its forecast for China’s growth to 3.2% this year, representing a sharp slowdown from 8.1% in 2021. Under Xi, China has not only become more insular, but has also seen the fraying of US-China relations. He is expected to secure an unprecedented third term in power at the Communist Party Congress that begins on Sunday. “Moreover, growth is not the only source of legitimacy and support for the Communist Party, and Xi has increasingly burnished the Communist Party’s nationalist credentials to appeal to patriotism as well as pocketbooks,” he added.

☆ China's Golden Week spending plunges to seven-year low as zero-Covid batters economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The National Day break is one of China’s longest public holidays and usually a peak season for travel and spending. But this year, people were deterred from traveling by a resurgence of the virus and stringent Covid restrictions. All the weak data point to the heavy damage of Beijing’s zero-Covid policy on consumer spending and the economy, said analysts. China’s service sector is a key source of employment, accounting for 48% of total jobs created, according to government data. “Entrepreneurs’ concerns continued to stem from recurring Covid outbreaks and the impact of related controls on the market,” Wang said.

Hong Kong/Tokyo CNN Business —A quarter of a century ago, a major financial crisis ripped through Asia, shaking its economies to the core. “I do not expect a repeat of the [1997] Asian Financial Crisis this time,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ Research. “Importantly, there is not the same build up of foreign denominated debt in recent years, which was one of the triggers of the Asian Financial Crisis,” Goh added. China and Japan have the world’s two biggest foreign exchange reserves, holding $3 trillion and $1.3 trillion respectively. “Asia’s resilience in the face of the current global storm is partly the result of reform that the Asian Financial Crisis prompted,” Neumann from HSBC said.

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