Barron’s (January 24)
“The continued slide in Chinese stocks toward lows set more than a decade ago may be mobilizing Beijing’s policymakers into action. But it isn’t clear if it will be enough to help the country’s embattled economy or improve sentiment in a meaningful way.”
Tags: Action, Beijing, China, Clear, Economy, Embattled, Lows, Meaningful, Mobilizing, Policymakers, Sentiment, Slide, Stocks
Bloomberg (January 19)
“Chinese stocks just capped another dismal week…. Grim milestones have kept piling up in recent days: Tokyo has overtaken Shanghai as Asia’s biggest equity market, while India’s valuation premium over China has hit a record. Locally, a meltdown in Chinese shares is wreaking havoc on the nation’s asset management industry, pushing mutual fund closures to a five-year high.”
Tags: Asset management, China, Closures, Dismal, Equity market, Grim, Havoc, India, Meltdown, Milestones, Mutual fund, Premium, Record, Shanghai, Shares, Stocks, Tokyo, Valuation
Wall Street Journal (January 17)
“China last year ceded its centuries-old position as the world’s most populous country to India.” Births in 2023 fell by over half a million, “to just over 9 million in total, accelerating the decline in the country’s population as women shrugged off the government’s exhortations to reproduce.”
Tags: 2023, Accelerating, Births, Ceded, China, Decline, Exhortations, Government, India, Population, Populous, Shrugged, Women
Bloomberg (January 11)
“Years of harrowing losses have left Chinese stocks with a diminished standing in global portfolios.” The trend is “likely to accelerate as some of the world’s biggest funds distance themselves from the risk-ridden market.” Furthermore, what began “as a performance-driven exodus now risks becoming a structural shift due to a toxic combination of doubts over Beijing’s long-term economic agenda, a prolonged property crisis and strategic competition with the US.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Competition, Diminished, Funds, Global portfolios, Harrowing, Losses, Property crisis, Risk, Stocks, Structural, Toxic
Wall Street Journal (January 3)
“Chinese automaker BYD for the first time topped Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles on a quarterly basis, a sign of China’s emerging strength in the global market for battery-powered cars…. The Chinese rival’s ascent in the global pecking order has put new pressure on Tesla at a time when the U.S. electric-car maker is already leaning on steep price cuts to juice its sales.”
Tags: Ascent, Automaker, Battery-powered, BYD, China, Emerging, EVs, Global market, Pressure, Price cuts, Sales, Strength, Tesla, U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations (December 27)
Development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to proceed at an exponential rate. Its rise “could mirror previous technological revolutions, adding billions of dollars worth of productivity to the global economy while introducing a slew of new risks that could upend the global geopolitical order and the nature of society itself. Managing these risks will be essential, and a global debate over AI governance is raging as major powers such as the United States, China, and European Union (EU) take increasingly divergent approaches toward regulating the technology.”
Tags: AI, China, Deployment, Development, Divergent, EU, Exponential, Geopolitical order, Global economy, Governance, Productivity, Risks, Society, Technological revolutions, U.S.
Reuters (December 23)
In 2024, “the global trade war will shift from fossil fuels to metals and raw materials. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the risk of relying on autocratic states for energy. Even if Europe’s gas crisis eases, Western manufacturers’ focus will switch to reducing China’s dominance in materials key to a cleaner economy.”
Tags: 2024, Autocratic, China, Cleaner, Dominance, Energy, Europe, Fossil fuels, Gas crisis, Global, Invasion, Materials, Metals, Raw materials, Relying, Risk, Russia, Shift, Trade war, Ukraine
Reuters (December 13)
“Conflict in the Middle East added geopolitical uncertainty to a luxury industry outlook already clouded by inflation, with shoppers in the U.S. and Europe tightening their purse strings while expectations for a strong post-pandemic rebound in China were derailed by a property crisis” On top of all that, Bergdorf Goodman and other high end retailers are already discounting adding to “concern that a lackluster Christmas could lead to inventory gluts – potentially dragging labels into a discounting spiral that would cheapen their image.”
Tags: Bergdorf Goodman, China, Christmas, Clouded, Discounting, Europe, Geopolitical uncertainty, Inflation, Inventory gluts, Lackluster, Luxury, Middle East, Outlook, Property crisis, Shoppers, Tightening, U.S.
Washington Post (December 10)
“China’s consumer prices fell the fastest in three years in November while factory-gate deflation deepened, indicating rising deflationary pressures as weak domestic demand casts doubt over the economic recovery.” Year on year and month on month, CPI fell a worse than expected 0.5%. “The year-on-year CPI decline was the steepest since November 2020.”
Tags: China, CPI, Deepened, Deflation, Domestic demand, Doubt, Economic recovery, Factory-gate, Fell, November, Pressures, Steepest, Weak, Worse
Wall Street Journal (December 6)
“2024 is the year the global spillover implications of China’s slowdown will sink in. Advanced economies will downgrade the importance of market access in China, and Global South nations will be forced to find other engines of development.” This will lead to “a new phase of geopolitical conditions, with the anchor assumption of a rising China and declining U.S. being retired. The implications of this will be far reaching and challenging to forecast.”
Tags: 2024, Advanced economies, Assumption, Challenging, China, Downgrade, Far-reaching, Geopolitical conditions, Global South, Global spillover, Implications, Market access, Slowdown, U.S.
