Good Morning. Welcome to The Wire’s daily news roundup. Each day, our staff gathers the top China business, finance, and economics headlines from a selection of the world’s leading news organizations.
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The Wall Street Journal
- China to Allow Home Buyers to Refinance Mortgages in Latest Easing Move — The measure is the latest in a weeklong burst of moves aimed at stimulating China’s property market.
- China Markets Surge in Wild End to the Quarter — The best month since 2015 for China stocks has investors exploring how the rebound will ripple to stocks in the U.S. and elsewhere.
- Defense-Tech Startups Need a New Supplier: Anyone but China — A new generation of companies is learning to build high-tech weapons without materials from Beijing.
- China PMIs Signal Continued Weakness, Backing Case for Bolder Policy Action — The official purchasing managers index signaled shrinking activity for a fifth straight month in September.
- Will China’s Surprise Stimulus Work? — Getting out of the deflationary hole China dug itself is vital, and in the short run all stimulus will help. But for the long term, the form that state support takes matters.
- Chinese Property Stocks Surge as Barrage of Stimulus Continues — Two major Chinese cities lifted key curbs on buying homes to boost demand.
- The $1.7 Billion Takeover Brawl Fueled by a Fear of China — Concerns about Beijing’s mineral-resources dominance hang over a deal to control the world’s largest zinc smelter.
- Why Kamala Harris Wants to Stockpile Minerals You’ve Probably Never Heard Of — China dominates supply chains for materials that are key for defense, electric vehicles and nuclear power.
The Financial Times
- Stellantis and Aston Martin shares fall sharply on profit warnings — Two groups become latest European carmakers to flag challenges from Chinese competition.
- Chinese stocks surge 8.5% in best day since 2008 — Investors bet that rally which began with Beijing’s stimulus package has further to run.
- Beijing pledges further boosts to ETF industry — Plan to encourage more tech-focused and small-cap ETFs unveiled as part of new financial stimulus package.
- Chungking Mansions, the chaos and glory at the heart of Hong Kong — How a 1960s block of towers filled with dealmakers and refugees came to define the changing city.
The New York Times
- China Removes Curbs on Home Buyers, Sparking Stock Market Surge — After seeing prices decline for years, Chinese officials have made a burst of policy changes aimed at making easier to buy homes.
Caixin
- Cover Story: China’s Stimulus Bomb Sparks Optimism, But Economy May Still Struggle — As millions across China prepared to head off on vacation in the days leading up to the National Day break, the announcement of a slew of aggressive stimulus measures and an unusual Politburo meeting addressing economic challenges propelled the benchmark CSI 300 Index to its biggest weekly gain in nearly 16 years.
- China Manufacturing Contracts at Fastest Rate in 14 Months, Caixin PMI Shows — Activity in China’s manufacturing sector contracted at the fastest rate in 14 months in September as demand shrank and the labor market weakened, a Caixin-sponsored survey published Monday shows.
- TCL Acquires LG Display’s LCD Plants in Guangzhou as Industry Consolidates — TCL Technology Group Corp. (000100.SZ +7.51%), a leading Chinese electronics maker, has agreed to pay 10.8 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) to acquire LG’s two display factories in Guangzhou, as Chinese manufacturers strengthen their dominance in the liquid crystal displays (LCD).
South China Morning Post
- Former Chinese finance official urges crypto research as US softens stance — Former finance vice-minister Zhu Guangyao called cryptocurrencies a ‘crucial aspect for the development of the entire digital economy’.
- ByteDance said to be turning to Huawei chips to train AI model amid US curbs, sources say — ByteDance’s next step in the AI race is to use Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip to train a large language AI model, said the people.
- China’s anxious youth, with no plans to marry, buy a flat or save, focus on life’s needs — Almost 80 per cent of respondents to a survey say they have no plans to buy property in China this year and would only pay for necessities.
Nikkei Asia
- China stocks extend stimulus-fueled surge heading into holiday — Bulls drive benchmark CSI 300 to its best day since 2008.
- China economic slowdown sends chill through ‘golden week’ holidays — Flight, hotel prices drop as travelers hunt for bargains ahead of National Day break.
- Opinion: Can China help end the escalating Middle East conflict? — Beijing views Gaza war as a chance to gain influence at the expense of the U.S.. By Gedaliah Afterman
Bloomberg
- China Urges Local Companies to Stay Away From Nvidia’s Chips — Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence chips instead of Nvidia Corp. products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions.
- China Property Shares Soar After Big Cities Ease Homebuying — Chinese property shares rallied after three of the country’s largest cities eased rules for homebuyers, following through on the central government’s latest efforts to prop up the embattled real estate sector.
- China Moves to Cut Mortgage Rates to Revive Housing Market — China took steps to lower borrowing costs on as much as $5.3 trillion in mortgages for millions of families in its latest attempt to shore up the troubled property sector.
Reuters
- Painful policy choices loom after China’s ‘monumental’ consumer stimulus plan — China’s stimulus plans to fill consumer pockets to meet its 2024 growth target breaks away from a decades-old policy playbook, but making household demand a sustainable driver of development instead of investment is a long path paved with tough choices.
- BYD recalling 97,000 top-selling EVs on steering component fault, regulator says — BYD has informed the Chinese regulator it is recalling nearly 97,000 electric vehicles (EVs) for a manufacturing fault involving a steering control unit that could lead to fire risks, the market regulator said on Sunday.
- Taiwan on alert over ‘multiple waves’ of missile firing in inland China — Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday it was on alert after detecting “multiple waves” of missile firing deep in inland China, days after Beijing said it had carried out a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Other Publications
- CNN: Communist China is celebrating its 75th birthday and its stock market is soaring. But not everyone is in the party spirit — For much of the past year since China reopened to the world following the Covid-19 pandemic, a pall has hung over large swathes of the country as its economy struggles to regain momentum.
- Le Monde: ‘In China, most billionaires have either undergone some kind of refashioning or taken steps to avoid the limelight’ — The Chinese authorities have brought several social media personalities to heel, particularly on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
- Foreign Policy: America’s Adversaries Are Targeting Its Cities and States — A spy scandal in New York is a window into a far bigger problem. By Casey Michel
- Rest of World: Virtual tomb-sweeping keeps a Chinese tradition alive — Zhang, a software developer in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, is the creator of Wangshang Mianhui (“online remembrance”), a virtual-tomb sweeping service.
- Fortune: Russia is about to face the moment of truth on an economic lifeline from China — China’s yuan is the most traded foreign currency in Russia, but its availability in the heavily sanctioned country may soon dry up.
