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☆ Car makers like Ford and GM are increasing loan payments, while some rivals are keeping costs down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Between March 2020 and December 2022, average monthly loan payments jumped about 29%, according to Dealertrack data Chesbrough shared. "Not everybody has risen their monthly payments in quite the amount." Alfa Romeo, Mini, Subaru, Jaguar, Audi, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, Toyota, and Genesis, made up the 10 brands with the lowest increases in their average monthly loan payments over the same period. Toyota was one of the 10 brands with the lowest increase in their average monthly loan payments since the pandemic began. "We think that there's really not going to be enough demand there at these high prices," Chesbrough said.

☆ The fog lifts for Didi's path to normalcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Didi Global's road ahead looks clearer. The move effectively removes a one-and-a-half year ban on new users for Didi, which has cost it dearly. Its market share has fallen more than 10 percentage points to 72% over the period, according to Bernstein analysts. That should help clear the way to an eventual re-listing in Hong Kong. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

The removal of inbound quarantine prompted a surge in demand for plane tickets in countries like Singapore which have large communities of overseas Chinese. “China remained closed off after Singapore reopened, so to go back, people needed to do PCR tests, undergo quarantine, and prices of flight tickets skyrocketed. Chu said she had missed her parents, her 83-year-old father and 78-year-old mother, and worried about their failing health. Her biggest wish was to spend as much time with them as possible when she goes back this time. “I haven’t seen them for three years, and they both got COVID, and are quite old.

CHONGQING, China—A month after scrapping most of its zero-Covid restrictions, China is experiencing all at once what many other nations have been navigating for three years. Infections have skyrocketed, medical facilities are stretched to their limits and the elderly and infirm are dying, although official government numbers are seen by public-health experts as vastly underestimating Covid-related deaths.

More than 30 mutual funds launched this week, mostly equity-focused, offering vehicles for recovery bets. Yang Delong, chief economist at First Seafront Fund Management expects China's economic growth to exceed 5% this year as COVID curbs are scrapped. Cao Ludi, fund manager at Fullgoal Fund Management, predicts an "N-shaped" economic recovery, as an expected Spring revival in activity will likely succumb to a harsh reality check in the second quarter. She advised against chasing the high-flying real estate and tourism stocks, as their "fundamentals remain a question mark." This should mean economic recovery by the second quarter, if not earlier."

☆ Highly immune evasive omicron XBB.1.5 variant is quickly becoming dominant in U.S. as it doubles weekly
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Covid omicron XBB.1.5 variant is rapidly becoming dominant in the U.S. because it is highly immune evasive and appears more effective at binding to cells than related subvariants, scientists say. It has since evolved into a family of subvariants including XBB.1 and XBB.1.5. The XBB subvariants are also resistant to Evusheld, an antibody cocktail that many people with weak immune systems rely on for protection against Covid infection because they don't mount a strong response to the vaccines. The scientists described the resistance of the XBB subvariants to antibodies from vaccination and infection as "alarming." The XBB subvariants were even more effective at dodging protection from the omicron boosters than the BQ subvariants, which are also highly immune evasive, the scientists found.

☆ One dead in big pileup on Chinese bridge shrouded in fog
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Dec 28 (Reuters) - One person was killed on Wednesday when more than 200 vehicles were involved in a pile-up on a bridge in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou in heavy fog, rescuers and the CCTV state broadcaster reported. Full of people here, I don't think we can get off the bridge," one person can be heard saying in one video clip. Visibility in many areas was less than 500 metres on Wednesday morning and down to 200 metres at times, the meteorological service said. Rescuers said more than 200 vehicles had slammed into each other, media reported. CCTV reported that cars travelling in both directions over the bridge, a major crossing of the Yellow River, were involved in numerous crashes.

☆ U.S. House administration arm bans TikTok on official devices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 27 (Reuters) - The popular Chinese video app TikTok has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives-managed devices, according to the House's administration arm, mimicking a law soon to go into effect banning the app from U.S. government devices. The new rule follows a series of moves by U.S. state governments to ban TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd, from government devices. "With the passage of the Omnibus that banned TikTok on executive branch devices, the CAO worked with the Committee on House Administration to implement a similar policy for the House," a spokesperson for the Chief Administrative Officer told Reuters on Tuesday. The message to staff said anyone with TikTok on their device would be contacted about removing it, and future downloads of the app were prohibited. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new rule.

☆ Undercounted Deaths Cloud China’s Zero-Covid Exit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Liyan Qi | Cao Li | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China has reported just a handful of Covid-19 deaths as a wave of Omicron infections has swept the country’s biggest cities, stoking suspicion among public-health experts and relatives of deceased patients that the government isn’t accurately accounting for the impact of the virus. Despite widespread reports of soaring infections, crowded hospitals and overwhelmed crematoria, Chinese health authorities had by Tuesday reported only seven Covid-related deaths since the country abruptly eased many of its pandemic-control measures more than two weeks ago. Two deaths were reported in Beijing on Monday and five the following day.

☆ Germany should help China-EU ties develop 'not subject to third party' -Xi
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Dec 20 (Reuters) - China and Germany should work together to foster good relations between Beijing and the European Union without any interference by a third party, President Xi Jinping told Germany's president in a phone call on Tuesday, state media reported. Xi was also quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as telling Frank-Walter Steinmeier that China hopes Germany can provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory operating environment for Chinese enterprises in Germany, the EU's largest market. "Leading the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations is a direction that China and Germany should work together for," Xi said, according to CCTV. BioNTech would be the first non-Chinese coronavirus vaccine to be administered in China as Beijing has hitherto insisted on administering domestically produced vaccines. Reporting by Ella Cao and Meg Shen, editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Analysts expect sentiment to recover gradually next year, as the relaxation of COVID restrictions and property support policies take effect. Property investment fell the fastest since the statistics bureau began compiling data in 2000, down 19.9% on year in November after a 16% slump in October, the NBS said in a statement. Beike's Liu predicted housing demand will be gradually released in 2023 as consumer sentiment will improve with a progress in housing delivery. Although markets cheered the easing policies, which are expected to boost economic growth in the long term, some analysts say fragile overall demand will keep the property sector's recovery gradual. "Considering the challenging demographic trend, and policymakers' long-held stance that 'housing is for living in, not for speculation', we maintain our view that the property sector recovery should be gradual and bumpy," Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note.

☆ China's November new home prices fall for fourth month
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies China's new home prices slump 1.6% y/y in NovChina's new home prices fall 0.2% m/m in NovBEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) - China's new home prices fell for a fourth month in November in monthly terms, weighed by a sluggish economy and a still-ailing property sector, official data showed on Thursday, but recent favourable policies and a relaxation in COVID curbs have burnished the outlook. New home prices in November fell 0.2% month-on-month after a 0.3% slide in October, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. Prices dropped 1.6% year-on-year, falling for the seventh straight month. Prices slid 1.6% year-on-year in October. China has rolled out a flurry of measures to support its embattled property sector, which has been squeezed by a liquidity crunch.

☆ Gotion and PTT Group plan battery venture in Thailand
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Volkswagen-backed Chinese battery maker Gotion High Tech (002074.SZ) will partner Thailand's PTT Group in the production and export of battery modules and packs in Thailand, the company said in a Shenzhen filing on Thursday. Gotion's Singapore unit will set up a joint venture with PTT for the projects with initial registered capital of 300 million Thai Baht ($8.60 million), the company said. ($1 = $1.0000)($1 = 34.9000 baht)Reporting by Zhang Yan, Ella Cao and Meg Shen Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China Meheco to distribute Pfizer's COVID treatment in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Alessandro DiviggianoHONG KONG, Dec 14 (Reuters) - China Meheco Group Co Ltd (600056.SS) said on Wednesday it signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) to import and distribute the U.S. drugmaker's oral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid in mainland China, as the country braces for a surge in COVID patients after scaling back its "zero COVID" policy. The agreement is valid between Dec. 14 and Nov. 30, 2023, China Meheco said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. Pfizer last year said it could produce up to 120 million courses of Paxlovid this year. As of Nov. 30, Pfizer had shipped almost 37 million courses of Paxlovid to 52 countries around the world, it said in a statement. The U.S. government announced a deal on Tuesday to buy an additional 3.7 million Paxlovid courses for nearly $2 billion, supplementing the 20 million courses already purchased by the United States.

But the popular traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen, used for symptoms like fever and cough, and antigen test kits remained harder to find. Online pharmacies across China have run out of drugs and test kits, prompting the government to crack down on hoarding. Heat was insufficient because of "unstable" coal supplies caused by COVID, state-run Baoding Daily reported, without giving details. "I have no fear" of COVID, said Yang, a farmer who is fully vaccinated and with no underlying diseases. China has reported no deaths since easing the COVID curbs, with fatalities to date around 5,200, versus more than 1 million in the United States.

"I know COVID is not so 'horrifying' now, but it is still contagious and will hurt," said one post on the Weibo platform. But, while announcing the implementation of the new measures late on Wednesday, some cities urged residents to remain vigilant. It urged residents to wear masks, maintain social distancing, seek medical attention for fever and other COVID symptoms and, especially for the elderly, to get vaccinated. "It (China) may have to pay for its procrastination on embracing a 'living with Covid' approach," Nomura analysts said in a note on Thursday. Infection rates in China are only around 0.13%, "far from the level needed for herd immunity", Nomura said.

☆ Japan's Q3 GDP revised up to 0.8% annualised contraction
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Japan's economy shrank at an annualised 0.8% in the July-September quarter, slower than the initial estimate of a 1.2% contraction, revised government data showed on Thursday. The revised figure for gross domestic product (GDP) released by the Cabinet Office compared with economists' median forecast for a 1.1% decline in a Reuters poll. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP contracted 0.2%, compared with the initial reading for a contraction of 0.3% and a median forecast for the same extent of falls. For the full tables on the Cabinet Office's website: https://www.esri.cao.go.jp/en/sna/sokuhou/sokuhou_top.htmlReporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto Editing by Chang-Ran KimOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China Plans Covid Vaccination Drive for the Elderly in Bid to Ease Pandemic Controls
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Raffaele Huang | Cao Li | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—China is planning a Covid-19 vaccination campaign for the elderly in December and January, part of its effort to be able to ease its zero-Covid policy, public-health officials familiar with the plan said, as outbreaks hit records and protests denouncing rigid pandemic controls spread. China aims to inoculate 90% of people aged 80 and above with at least one shot by the end of January, said the officials, who work at local branches of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and received instructions from Beijing. That rate is currently at 77%, according to government data.

☆ China Clamps Down on Protesters Against Zero-Covid Policies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Cao Li | Elaine Yu | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese authorities tightened controls in reaction to rare nationwide protests against the country’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid, dispatching phalanxes of police to prevent fresh gatherings as state media reiterated support for leader Xi Jinping ’s stringent pandemic strategy. The demonstrations exploded in several large cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, during the weekend. They followed a deadly fire on Friday in Urumqi, capital of the remote region of Xinjiang, which officials said killed 10 people. Some residents suggested that pandemic restrictions contributed to a delay in putting out the fire.

☆ China's industrial profits fall at faster pace in Jan-Oct
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary Jan-Oct industrial profits -3.0% y/y vs -2.3% in Jan-SeptemberBEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Profits at China's industrial firms fell at a faster pace in January-October as a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and a deepening property crisis weighed on factory activity and demand. Industrial profits fell 3.0% in the first 10 months of 2022 from a year earlier, after a 2.3% slump in January-September, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Sunday. Likewise, analysts from Oxford Economics also cut their 2022 and 2023 GDP forecasts as they believe a broadening of lockdown measures is expected. Last month, China's industrial output surged 5.0% from a year earlier, missing expectations for a 5.2% gain in a Reuters poll and slowing from the 6.3% growth seen in September. Industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues above 20 million yuan from their main operations.

☆ Neuberger Berman gets Chinese regulatory approval to conduct mutual fund business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) - U.S. asset manager Neuberger Berman's Chinese unit said on Friday it has been granted a license by the Chinese securities regulator to conduct mutual fund business. It officially becomes the second wholly foreign-owned fund management company allowed to conduct mutual fund business in the country, the company said on its official WeChat account. BlackRock (BLK.N) already operates a fully owned mutual fund business in China. In September, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) approved Neuberger Berman to set up a wholly owned mutual fund unit in Shanghai. Reporting by Samuel Shen, Ella Cao and Twinnie Siu, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A Diverse Thanksgiving Without Affirmative Action
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( William Mcgurn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

For her Thanksgiving turkey, Asra Nomani uses spices common in her native India such as turmeric and paprika. Hung Cao , who arrived on these shores after the fall of Saigon, recalls how his mother’s Thanksgiving spread featured crispy duck and egg rolls. Shanghai-born Ying McCaskill uses the leftover turkey to create an American variant of spicy kou shui (“mouth-watering”) chicken. The countries they come from are vastly different—India, Vietnam and China—pointing to the absurdity of even lumping them together under a single category. But in Virginia’s public-school system they all see a troubling erosion of the principles that made America such a refuge for their families in the first place.

So far in 2022, there have been 25 trading days in which the Hang Seng Index gained or lost more than 3%. Hong Kong entered a bull market earlier this month—at least according to one common definition. The city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index surged 25% in the first half of November, clearing the 20% hurdle that is traditionally used to define a bull market. The sharp run-up from its trough on Oct. 31—when the index touched its lowest level since April 2009—was fueled by signs that China is starting to shift away from its strict zero-Covid policy that has hamstrung the world’s second-largest economy. Moves by the Chinese government to ease pressure on its limping property sector also gave investors reason for optimism.

☆ To Boost Land Sales, Local Chinese Governments Set Up New Companies to Buy Plots
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Rebecca Feng | Cao Li | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China’s slumping housing market has made selling land increasingly difficult for local governments across the country, leading some to find creative ways to avoid massive revenue shortfalls. Local governments’ total land-related income in the first nine months of 2022 was down nearly 30% from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Finance shows, mostly because of a big drop in land sales. After six consecutive years of annual growth, they fell 36% in the first 10 months of 2022, according to official data compiled by Wind.

☆ China Oct new home prices fall at fastest annual pace in 7 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

On an annual basis, new home prices slumped 1.6%, the fastest pace since August 2015, worsening from the 1.5% year-on-year fall in September and marking the sixth month of contraction. New home prices declined 0.3% month-on-month, easing 0.2% in September, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. The property sector has struggled with defaults and stalled projects since authorities started to clamp down on excessive leverage in mid-2020, hitting market confidence and weighing on economic activity. Data on Tuesday also pointed to further weakness in the cash-strapped sector, showing real estate investment fell at its fastest pace in 32 months in October. A notice to financial institutions from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) outlined 16 steps to support the industry, including loan repayment extensions, sources said on Sunday.

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