Reuters (February 28)
China’s housing market seems to be approaching a paradigm shift. “The broad idea is to create a two-tier system. Local governments will rent out or sell flats below market prices to most residents, including some 300 million Chinese migrant workers who live far away from their hometowns in the mainland. Upgraders and investors could settle for a smaller private residential market, where regulators meddle less.”
Tags: China, Flats, Housing market, Investors, Local governments, Market prices, Migrant workers, Paradigm shift, Regulators, Rent, Residential, Residents, Sell, Two-tier system
New York Times (February 24)
“Investors often see Berkshire as a bellwether of the American economy, given the breadth of its business.” Marking a sharp reversal from a $22 billion loss in 2022, the conglomerate recorded net earnings of $97.1 billion in 2023, “its highest-ever annual profit last year.” Moreover, “Berkshire also reported $37.4 billion in operating earnings, the financial metric that Mr. Buffett prefers because it excludes paper investment gains and losses, for the year, up 21 percent from 2022.”
Tags: 2022, 2023, Bellwether, Berkshire, Conglomerate, Economy, Investment gains, Investors, Loss, Net earnings, Operating earnings, Profit, Reversal, U.S.
Institutional Investor (February 23)
“We found claims that impact funds must be concessionary — meaning investors give up some returns when they also pursue social goals — to be wrong. In fact, funds designed to solve some of society’s problems can produce returns comparable to non-impact funds and they can lower risks. Impact-aligned industries also can outperform others.”
Tags: Claims, Concessionary, Impact funds, Industries, Investors, Lower risks, Outperform, Returns, Social goals, Wrong
Washington Post (February 20)
“As it stands today, even the most heralded investor activism has done next to nothing to move the needle…. Somehow activists missed that each share a green investor sells is purchased by somebody with lesser green credentials, less interest in climate change. This substitution could actually lead to more rather than fewer carbon emissions.”
Tags: Activists, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Green investor, Heralded, Investors, Sells, Share, Substitution
Bloomberg (February 19)
China’s Communist Party appears poised to “play a bigger role in steering its vast technology industry, the latest sign that Beijing intends to exert more influence over swathes of the world’s No. 2 economy.” In response, shares in the nation’s listed chipmakers “slid more than 2% as investors pondered the ramifications of greater state control, which has yielded mixed results so far.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Chipmakers, Communist party, Influence, Investors, Mixed results, No. 2 economy, Ramifications, Shares, State control, Steering. Technology industry
The Economist (February 10)
“This year investors in Chinese stocks have been on a hair-raising ride. Even as America’s S&P 500 index reached record highs, markets in China and Hong Kong shed $1.5trn in January alone…. The decline signals a fundamental problem. Investors abroad and at home once saw China’s government as a dependable steward of the economy. Now this trust has seeped away, with severe consequences for China’s growth.”
Tags: $1.5trn, China, Consequences, Decline, Dependable, Economy, Government, Growth, Hair raising, Hong Kong, Investors, Markets, S&P 500, Steward, Stocks, Trust
Markets Insider (February 8)
“The takeover of passive and algorithmic trading has made value investing significantly harder, with overvalued stocks now more likely to win out.” The shift from actively managed investment has “led to fewer investors trading on the merits of individual stocks, making it harder… to find undervalued companies that will eventually close the gap between them and the rest of the market.”
Tags: Actively managed, Algorithmic trading, Investment, Investors, Market, Overvalued, Passive, Stocks, Takeover, Undervalued, Value investing
South China Morning Post (February 7)
“China’s state security ministry has stepped forward to warn those who disseminate ‘short’ views on the country’s economic and market prospects.” Based on this year’s performance, “excessive information manipulation has backfired and frightened away investors” from Chinese stocks on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges. “To investors, a one-sided story, no matter how good it may look on the surface, is not trustworthy if there’s no counter-balance…. The rational response would be to stay away.”
Tags: ‘Short’ views, Backfired, China, Counter-balance, Frightened, Hong Kong, Information, Investors, Manipulation, Performance, Prospects, Security ministry, Shanghai, Stocks, Trustworthy, Warn
New York Times (January 20)
“The money flowing out of funds that invest in companies with environmental, social and governance principles has gone from a trickle to a torrent as investors sour on a sector hit by green-washing concerns, red-state boycotts and boardroom debates.” The phrase ESG “has become increasingly politicized” and has even “been scrubbed from the World Economic Forum’s official program in Davos, Switzerland, after being on the agenda in previous years.”
Tags: Boardroom debates, Boycotts, Davos, ESG, Funds, Green-washing, Invest, Investors, Money, Outflows, Politicized, Red state, Scrubbed, Sour, Torrent
Washington Post (January 19)
“The S&P 500 hit an all-time closing high Friday.” Up over 1% from Thursday, the index closed at 4,839.81, “surpassing the previous closing record set in January of 2022.” Support stems from confidence in an economy that has averted a recession, apparently achieving an elusive soft-landing. Analysts also “point to an AI-driven frenzy on Wall Street that rivals the dot-com boom of the late ’90s, when investors sought to capitalize on the transformative gains brought by the early internet.”
Tags: AI, Analysts, Boom, Capitalize, Dot-com, Economy, Frenzy, Gains, High, Internet, Investors, Recession, Record Confidence, Rivals, S&P 500, Soft landing, Transformative, Wall Street