Tag: Stocks and Bonds

China’s Property Crisis: Why It’s So Hard for Beijing to Fix

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China’s stock market was plunging and its currency was teetering. The head of the central bank, fielding questions at a rare news conference, said that China would make it easier to get home mortgages. It was February 2016 and Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s longtime governor at the time, announced what proved to be the start of an extraordinary blitz of lending by China’s immense banking system. Minimum down payments for buying apartments were reduced, triggering a surge in construction. Vast sums were also lent to local governments, allowing them…

Chinese Confidence Hits Low Point Because of Nation’s Economic Troubles

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When their government abruptly ended its harsh Covid measures in December, many Chinese expected a robust rebound from pent-up demand. Eight months later, China is instead facing an accumulation of bad news: record youth unemployment, a deep housing slump, stagnant spending, even deflation. That’s a shock to many Chinese who are used to an economy that kept on expanding and living standards that rose with it. Now they’re contending with slowing businesses and shrinking personal fortunes. I talked to over a dozen business owners and consumers, as I have been…

China Faces a Crisis in Its Real Estate Sector

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A model Chinese property developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. And billions of dollars have flowed out of the country’s stock markets. In China, August has been a dizzying ride. What started three years ago as a crackdown on risky business behavior by home builders, and then an ensuing housing slowdown, has spiraled rapidly this month. The broader economy has been threatened, and the confidence of consumers,…

Interest Rate Jitters Sink the Giants of Tech

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Market whiplash In the span of a month, the bottom has dropped out of the bull-market rally as investors have come to grips with the prospect of “higher for longer” interest rates worldwide. The sell-off in global stocks and bonds picked up steam on Thursday. And weary market watchers will be looking for more hints on the Fed’s view at next week’s Jackson Hole summit of central bankers and policymakers. Technology stocks have been hit particularly hard. The high-flying FANG+ Index — which comprises the largest tech stocks by market…

Trouble in China Pushes Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Into Bear Market

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Stocks in Hong Kong entered a bear market on Friday, down 21 percent from their high near the start of the year, as investors grew increasingly worried that the deteriorating condition of China’s real estate sector could spill over into the broader economy. The slump in the Hang Seng Index, which is made up mostly of companies from the mainland, comes as China’s economy confronts weakening growth. After three years of harsh Covid restrictions, foreign investment is down, consumers are spending less and the housing market is in turmoil. The…

Thursday Briefing: China’s stock market slump

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China’s stocks slump amid economic gloom A recent stream of worrying economic data released by China is taking the fizz out of its stock market. An index of Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong has fallen more than 9 percent this month, and the Hang Seng Index is down a similar amount. The CSI 300, which tracks the biggest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, has dropped about 5 percent. “The Chinese economy is faced with an imminent downward spiral with the worst yet to come,” analysts at the investment…

China and Hong Kong Stocks Slump as Economic Gloom Spreads

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About three weeks ago, at a meeting chaired by Xi Jinping, China’s leader, officials acknowledged that China’s economy was facing “new difficulties and challenges.” According to the official Xinhua News Agency’s summary of the Politburo meeting, officials promised to juice the economy, which had started to rebound at the start of the year after Covid restrictions were lifted but had been struggling. The economic troubles, they said, arose from flagging domestic demand and a “grim and complex” global economy, among other factors. Chinese stocks jumped at the time, even though…

China’s Woes Loom Large Over the Global Markets

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What’s behind the August sell-off? Goldman Sachs economists see an end to the Fed’s hawkish policy on interest rates, predicting that the central bank will cut its prime lending rate in the second quarter of next year. But that bullish prediction is doing little to restore investors’ optimism, as concerns mount about consumer confidence and the health of global economy. China’s woes are reverberating. The country, a major engine of growth, has been rocked by a decline in trade, a slowdown in consumer spending, a crackdown on the private sector…

Country Garden Is Latest Property Giant in China to Run Into Trouble

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Remember China Evergrande, that Chinese property behemoth whose mountain of debt sent global markets spiraling in 2021? Its collapse later marked the start of a crisis for China’s housing market, where sales of apartments ground to a halt and developers big and small found themselves unable to pay their bills. Now, financial troubles at Country Garden, another property giant, are raising fresh concerns. It is also a flashing warning sign about China’s economy. Country Garden, the country’s biggest property developer by sales, has been pummeled in the markets twice in…

Investors Sour on China’s Stocks, Renewing Fears About Economy

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The wager was supposed to be a no-brainer. China was reopening after nearly three years of pandemic lockdowns, and investors expected that its economy, the world’s second-largest, would come roaring back to life. Chinese stocks soared. But that bet has soured. This week, Chinese stocks that are traded in Hong Kong sank briefly into a bear market, after losing more than 20 percent of their value from a high in January. Stocks on the mainland are also in the red for the year. The declines reflect a fizzling optimism in…