So it's now June, my final month living and working in this beautiful city. I first moved to Hong Kong in early 2017 for what was meant to be 3 months. Then a few wonderful people helped make the move permanent and the rest is history.
A bit of a different thread today... 1/6
I am very proud to have been a part of Bloomberg's HK bureau, an incredibly welcoming, collaborative, hardworking and resilient group of people. To everyone in print, TV, radio, QuickTake, social, security (Jimmy and Michael!) hair & make up (Maria and Marco!) - thank you. 2/6
China markets - what a beat. Covering this part of the world is thrilling, exasperating, rewarding. I dug up my first HK TV appearance with @DavidInglesTV, when the MSCI China was in a bull market. It's had another 4 bull runs and 5 bear markets since. 3/6 bloomberg.com/news/videos/20…
I've been lucky to travel to the mainland, both as a journalist and tourist. I hope to be back. There are so many places still to visit and the bucket list is long, starting with a mala pilgrimage to Chengdu (accompanied by one of these). 4/6
We have excellent people covering mainland China, HK, Taiwan. 5/6
In three weeks I'll be back in London, where it all started with Bloomberg 11 years ago. I'll be joining an exciting new project with @BloombergUK and @markets - still writing and talking about the price of things.
Plenty more to say about that soon. 6/6
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Stimulus mode. The central bank cuts interest rates, shifting gears to boost growth as economic data continues to disappoint. Authorities are also considering a broad stimulus package to support the housing market and get consumers spending. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Challenges ahead. China's youth jobless rate sets another record at 20.8%. Unemployment among fresh graduates is a key sticking point for Beijing, as is the property market - which has entered what Goldman's team calls an “L-shaped” growth trend. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Recovery stalls. Exports sink a worse-than-expected 7.5% in May and factory prices fall for an eighth month. More stimulus is in the works to support the property market and help banks, though Beijing appears reluctant to roll out bigger measures. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Stimulus lite. China says some lenders can lower the yields offered on deposits, making it less attractive for savers to park their cash. Low interest rates are squeezing profits at banks, who are tasked with lending more to consumers and corporates. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Bear market. Chinese stocks are in a prolonged downturn, declining more than 20% since a peak. Worse-than-expected economic data, a mixed earnings season and tensions with the US have all made investors pessimistic. Friday's rebound saw low volumes. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Light positioning. Sentiment is so bearish now that even European-based long-only funds, the biggest buyers of Chinese stocks in the first quarter, have turned underweight on the market. They were behind much of the $1.6 billion of outflows in May. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Burry buys. Michael Burry, the investor played by Christian Bale in The Big Short, is betting big on JD.com and Alibaba. The stocks are now the largest holdings of his Scion Asset Management, accounting for 20% of the stock portfolio. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Youth unemployment. The jobless rate for China’s 16-to-24 year olds exceeds 20% for the first time since records began - nearly 4x the national rate. Joblessness will worsen when almost 12 million graduates enter the job market in the summer. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Italy out. PM Giorgia Meloni has signaled she intends to pull her country out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Italy is the only G-7 country to have entered the investment pact and is under US pressure to ditch it. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Tit-for-tat. A Canadian diplomat in Shanghai is told to leave China by Saturday. Trudeau’s government had earlier expelled a Chinese envoy who was looking to penalize a Canadian lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong, the Globe and Mail reports. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Two speeds. Travel surges over the Labor Day holidays, with people making far more trips across China than even before the pandemic. Spending was only 0.7% higher than 2019 levels though, showing residents are still tightening their belts. 2/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Comeback city. A key destination for Chinese tourists has been Hong Kong, where the economy expanded 2.7% in the first quarter. While that's better than expected, it compares with low base last year, when HK was battling its worst Covid outbreak. 3/10 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…