Bloomberg (March 28)
“The risks are piling up for Japan’s currency, stocks and bonds as the nation’s fiscal year draws to an end right when many global markets close for Easter — and less than two weeks after the central bank hiked interest rates.”
Tags: Bonds, Central bank, Currency, Easter, Fiscal year, Global markets, Interest rates, Japan, Piling up, Risks, Stocks
Financial Times (March 17)
“A strange thing happened this week: calm.” U.S. data revealed higher than expected price inflation. “This time around, however, government bonds wobbled only slightly and both US and global stocks held it together around record highs.” The absence of drama indicates “interest rates are shedding their suffocating dominance over global markets, and that stocks are climbing not because they are huffing the speculative fumes of imminent and aggressive potential rate cuts but because they’re worth it.”
Tags: Calm, Dominance, Global, Government bonds, Inflation, Interest rates, Markets, Rate cuts, Record highs, Speculative, Stocks, Suffocating, U.S.
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
MarketWatch (January 24)
“Megacap technology stocks have retaken leadership of the U.S. stock market as the S&P 500 continues to hit new record highs, defying hopes on Wall Street for a more broad-based rally.” Since January 1, “the so-called Magnificent Seven have gained a combined $540.7 billion in market capitalization, compared with a total market-cap gain of $802.5 billion for the S&P 500 SPX through Tuesday’s close.”
Tags: $540.7 billion, Broad-based, Magnificent Seven, Market-cap, Megacap, Rally, Record highs, S&P 500 SPX, Stock market, Stocks, Technology, U.S., Wall Street
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
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 (December 12)
“Investors spent most of 2023 fretting about inflation and interest rates. Now they are snapping up everything from stocks and bonds to crypto and even gold.” Does the “simultaneous surge across assets” signal “the arrival of a lasting bull market” or is it “just a fleeting sugar high at the end of the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle?” Opinions are divided.
Tags: 2023, Bonds, Bull market, Crypto, Cycle, Fed, Fleeting, Fretting, Gold, Inflation, Interest rates, Investors, Stocks, Surge, Tightening