Asian stocks combined overnight, with South Korea and Japan underperforming after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said there would possibly be no interest rate cut in 2024 if inflation remains “sideways. “The sideways comments caused investors to soothe their grief with red wine. but not Merlot! (to Oblique, the film, reference).
Southeast Asia held up well, while several Asian markets remained closed overnight: mainland China for the Ching Ming festival, Pakistan for Juma Tul Vida, and Taiwan for Tomb Cleaning Day.
Hong Kong trimmed the intraday lows of the Hang Seng Index by -1. 46% and the Hang Seng Tech Index was down 2. 31% to end with a final decline of both indexes of -0. 01% and -0. 29%, respectively, amid a bright light. Volumes with Southbound Stock Connect closed.
Janet Yellen’s comments about China’s overcapacity in electric cars (EVs) and solar power drew attention after she landed in Guangzhou yesterday. Limiting excess capacity would be up to investors, as corporations debase each other, hurting their finances. We saw this when Uber and Didi simply went bankrupt fighting for the share of the taxi market. This morning, mainland media reported that Yellen had met with Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Despite Yellen’s comments, three days of US-China Trade and Trade Working Group meetings were held between Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen and U. S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Largo in Washington DC. power generation and trade, China’s press release noted that the vice minister also met with the National Economic Council, the Treasury Department, Homeland Security and the White House Commerce Department and engaged in an “in-depth exchange with officials. “Researchers from business networks and think tanks. Obviously, communication is increasing, which is good news, after U. S. -China international relations have been disrupted by COVID, even though U. S. and Chinese business leaders get along very well, for the most part.
Hong Kong’s most traded stocks were Tencent, which gained 0. 52% after buying back 3. 25 million shares today, Alibaba, which fell -0. 43%, AIA, which gained 1. 23%, Meituan, which gained 1. 47% after announcing its buyback of 3. 5 million shares today, and HSBC which gained 2. 2%. Internet gaming combined: JD. com fell by -1. 44%, Trip. com fell by -1. 00% despite very strong figures during the four-day weekend in China, Baidu gained 1. 06%, NetEase gained 0. 13% and Kuaishou gained 0. 91%. . .
Energy is weak despite headline WTI, while China Oilfield Services fell -16. 11% following the hypothesis that Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has halted production on four of the company’s platforms pending contract negotiations.
Healthcare weakened, with Wuxi Biologics down -4. 84% and WuXi AppTec down -5. 51% due to fears that the U. S. Congressional Biosafety Act would be a threat to the pandemic. According to Endpoint News, a media outlet I’ve never heard of.
The property sector fell, state-owned developer Vanke fell -4. 2%, mainland media reported that the company had paid RMB 5. 6 billion in maturing bonds indexed outside China.
Hoing Kong ended the week higher, I’m probably the only user to realize that Chinese tech has outperformed U. S. tech by 12% since Feb. 5. China’s web and generation sectors are also outperforming China as a whole.
The Hang Seng and Hang Seng Tech indices fell -0. 01% and -0. 29% respectively, with volume down -29. 23% from Wednesday, or 75% of the one-year average. 115 stocks rose while 363 fell. Main Board short billing decreased by -19. 61% from yesterday, or 93% of the year-over-year average, as 22% of billing was short billing (remember that Hong Kong short billing includes volume of ETF short positions, which is made up of our minds through ETF hedging by market makers. ). Everything was negative, with expansion and giant caps falling less than price and small caps. Communication services have become the only positive sector, gaining +0. 47%. Meanwhile, healthcare fell -2. 69%, electricity fell -2. 2% and utilities fell -1. 99%. The most productive subsectors were consumer durables, software and media. At the same time, the pharmaceutical biotechnology, diversified finance and health devices sectors were among the worst performers. Stock Connect southbound was closed today.
Shanghai, Shenzhen and the STAR Board closed today.
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Mainland China’s income, commodity and currency markets closed overnight.