January 23, 2024 | Daily JAM, Mid Term |
China will launch a new stabilization package including about 2 trillion yuan ($278 billion) to buy mainland shares via offshore trading links in the coming days, government sources say. This would come after a market rout that has erased more than $6 trillion in market value from mainland China and Hong Kong stocks since a peak reached in 2021. And certainly China’s stocks rallied on the news. The NASDAQ Golden Dragon Index of Chinese stocks traded in the United States closed up 4.84% today, Tuesday, January 23. But considering the extent of the losses and its duration, I’d count a less than 5% gain–especially since the index was up by more than 6% earlier in the day.
January 16, 2024 | Daily JAM, Mid Term |
Chinese officials have indicated that the government is considering issuing 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion) of new debt under a special sovereign bond plan. The plan would sell ultra-long sovereign bonds to fund projects related to food, energy, supply chains, and urbanization. The sale of this type of ultra-long bonds is rare: In the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998, for example, the government issued special debt to replenish capital for major state-owned banks. The most recent sale was in 2020, when authorities issued 1 trillion yuan worth of those bonds to pay for pandemic response measures. The new round of stimulus is good news for a global economy that has been struggling with lagging growth as China’s economy has slowed. But the plan is bad news for anyone worried about the deep structural problems facing China’s economy.
January 23, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
In the week leading up to the Lunar New Year festival, the official count for the number of Covid deaths in China after the chaotic end of the country’s 0-Covid policy was 12,658. That brought the total reported by China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention to an official 59,938. Outside experts calculate that the true total is much, much higher. Airfinity, a healthcare data crunch puts the number at 640,000.
July 7, 2022 | Daily JAM |
Commodity stocks rallied big time on Thursday, July 7, on news that China’s Ministry of Finance is considering allowing local governments to sell 1.5 trillion yuan ($220 billion) of special bonds in the second half of this year. This would be a huge expansion of the borrowing capacity of local governments–which had looked to be only around $330 million after local governments sold most of the year’s quota in the first half–and would provide a boost to infrastructure spending and China’s economic growth. The news comes as fears grow that China’s economy won’t meet the official goal of 5.5% growth in 2020.
April 12, 2022 | Daily JAM |
China’s Premier Li Keqiang issued a third warning about risks to economic growth. Authorities should “add a sense of urgency” when implementing existing policies, Li told local authorities at a seminar Monday. China will study and adopt stronger economic policies as needed to support the economy, he said.
February 21, 2022 | Daily JAM, Mid Term |
The People’s Bank of China increased its cash injections into the financial system via reverse repos to 100 billion yuan ($15.8 billion). That resulted in a net injection of 90 billion yuan. The PBOC had been draining cash in the last two weeks, which is routine following the Lunar New Year holiday.
May 23, 2020 | Daily JAM |
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Saturday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. Two...
April 28, 2020 | Daily JAM, Notes You Need |
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don't justify a full post. I've decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I'm calling Notes...
April 17, 2020 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
China's gross domestic product contracted by 6.8% from a year ago in the first quarter. Economists had projected a 6.0% drop. The decline was the worst since the government began releasing quarterly GDP numbers in 1992. Other numbers in today's data dump were equally...
February 19, 2020 | Morning Briefing |
Across China, companies in the private sector of the country's economy are telling workers that their paycheck will be delayed or that it will be smaller than usual or, worst case, that there won't be a paycheck at all. For example, NIO, an electric car-maker based in...
January 6, 2020 | Daily JAM |
Land sales in major Chinese cities hit a record high in 2019, according to Caixin Global. Revenue from land sales revenue in 50 cities last year grew to a record 4.2 trillion yuan ($601.6 billion) as of Dec. 26, marking a jump of 17.6% from the same period in 2018,...
December 26, 2019 | Daily JAM |
It looks like looser monetary policy is on the way in China for 2020. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Monday the government will study further cutting bank reserve requirements in 2020. It's a good bet that the Premier would have raised the possible policy change if...