Reuters (April 22)
“The burning question facing China’s EV industry… is how and when it can convert explosive sales of ground-breaking vehicles into sustainable profits. The intense competition driving the sector’s innovation has also made China a market with precious few winners, foreign or domestic.” Approximately 170 domestic and automakers are competing in China, “but only 14 have a market share higher than 2%.” In 2024, excluding hybrids there were 327 EV models produced by 86 brands. Ultimately, there will be “few survivors from China’s hypercompetitive EV industry.”
Tags: Automakers, China, Competition, Domestic, EV industry, EVs, Explosive sales, Foreign, Ground-breaking, Hybrids, Hypercompetitive, Innovation, Market share, Survivors, Sustainable profits, Winners
Washington Post (July 4)
“Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index closed Thursday at a fresh record high of 40,913.65, pushing past its most recent record close set in March on heavy buying of automaker and technology shares…. Both foreign and domestic investors have piled into the Japanese market in recent months even as the economy has slowed.” The weak yen is “part of the attraction…. But changes to investment regulations have also lured many Japanese investors into the equity market.”
Tags: Automaker, Domestic, Economy, Foreign, Heavy buying, Investors, Japan, Market, Nikkei 225, Record high, Shares, Technology, Weak yen
Wall Street Journal (March 19)
“Foreign investors have increasingly shifted their investments to India from China in recent years, partly because of concerns over Beijing’s unpredictable policy moves and China’s sputtering economy.” The shift doesn’t necessarily shield them. “A recent clampdown on one of India’s biggest financial technology companies rattled investors and serves as a reminder that New Delhi can also make sudden moves with a hefty impact on companies and market value.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Clampdown, Concerns, Economy, Financial, Foreign, Impact, India, Investments, Investors, Shift, Shifted, Sputtering, Technology, Unpredictable
Bloomberg (July 20)
There seems to be a split “forming between a growing number of bearish yen watchers in Tokyo and their more positive foreign counterparts.” With the yen at a 24-year nadir, “strategists are debating whether one of the year’s hottest macro trades—sell the yen—is overdone.” In Japan, many think “there’s still plenty of time to pile on shorts,” but overseas “analysts from Sydney to Geneva… say time is nearly up on the trade as the yen slips further toward the key psychological level of 140 per dollar.”
Tags: 140 per dollar, Analysts, Bearish, Foreign, Japan, Macro trades, Nadir, Overdone, Overseas, Shorts, Split, Strategists, Tokyo, Yen
Kyodo News (April 4)
“The Tokyo stock market trumpets its largest overhaul in decades to lure more foreign investors. Still, the bourse is missing something such investors have long awaited — companies with great growth potential.”
Reuters (July 6)
The spectator ban on the opening ceremony is yet “another downgrade” for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, leaving its “pomp and public spectacle overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. Once promoted as an extravaganza to showcase Japan to the world, the Games appear in danger of taking place largely out of public view in a country closed to foreign tourists due to the pandemic.”
Tags: Ban, Closed, Coronavirus, Downgrade, Extravaganza, Foreign, Japan, Olympics, Opening ceremony, Overshadowed, Pandemic, Showcase, Spectacle, Spectator, Tokyo 2020
Wall Street Journal (June 11)
A report on Toshiba “harked back to the days when Japan Inc. was a popular term to describe the perceived tight linkage between big business and government in blocking foreign influence in Japan.” The company-commissioned report found that Toshiba Corp. “worked closely with Japanese government officials to block foreign-based shareholders from exercising their rights, using inappropriate threats and language such as ‘beat them up.’”
Tags: Big business, Foreign, Government, Inappropriate, Influence, Japan Inc., Linkage, Report, Rights, Shareholders, Threats, Toshiba
The Economist (May 1)
Since 2010, foreign creditors “have extended the equivalent of more than $5 billion of 100-year bonds to Mexico in three currencies: dollars, sterling and now euros.” Moreover, Mexico has received exceedingly good terms (4.2%-6.1%) given its “distinctly spotty credit record.” This speaks volumes about the intensity of the global search for yield, but raises the inevitable question “what are the chances of investors, or their grandchildren, getting their money back?”
Bloomberg (October 28)
“Foreign investors have boosted South Korean stock holdings for a record 41 straight days, lured by the nation’s current-account surplus, strengthening currency and fastest growth in almost two years.”
