KWEB

The Chinese exchange-traded funds (ETFs) market has seen a fivefold increase in investments over the past three years What Happened: As per Morningstar, the inflow into Chinese ETFs has experienced “staggering” growth, consistently reaching new highs over the last five years, CNBC reported on Tuesday. Wanda Wang, Morningstar’s Research Manager, mentioned that the annual inflows to China ETFs surged almost fivefold in the past three years. Data from the American financial services firm shows that the total yearly inflows to Chinese ETFs swelled from 127.2 billion yuan ($17.49 billion) in 2021, to 387.2 billion yuan ($53.2 billion) in 2022. In 2023, this figure hit 604.3 billion yuan ($8

Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:FUTU) stock is trading higher on Wednesday, thanks to Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) leading a tech rally in Hong Kong. The online brokerage and wealth management platform also announced Wednesday that its wealth management business has surpassed $10 billion in assets under management. Futu’s wealth management platform offers mutual funds, private funds, bonds, and structured notes to Hong Kong and Singapore clients. Futu Holdings stock gained 66% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the Chinese equity market via iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSE:FXI) and KraneShares Trust KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE:KWEB). Pr

Chinese stocks improved on Monday after data on June manufacturing came in better than forecast and reached its highest point in three years. The CSI 300 Index, which follows China’s largest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, rise 0.5% on Monday to come out of a four-month low and build on Friday’s 2% gain, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong's financial markets were closed for a holiday. Japan's Nikkei 225 edged up 0.1%, while South Korea's Kospi gained 0.2% yet Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.2%. The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) improved from 51.7 in May to to 51.8 in June to set the fastest pace since May 2021 and beat a

A JPMorgan Chase & Co analyst, who was previously bearish on China’s tech sector, is now predicting a significant increase in stock prices. What Happened: Alex Yao, the co-head of Asia TMT research at JPMorgan, has made a remarkable shift in his stance on China’s tech sector. Yao, who was once skeptical about the sector’s potential, is now forecasting a 20-25% increase in stock prices, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday. Yao attributes this potential growth to an improved cost structure and less aggressive competition. He also emphasizes the significance of macroeconomic developments in stabilizing the sector’s share price trend. This change in tone from a notable skeptic like Yao is i

Pan Gongsheng, governor of the Chinese central bank, People’s Bank of China, dismissed the idea that its bond trading is a form of massive monetary easing. What Happened: Gongsheng clarified that the bond trading would be a liquidity management tool involving both buying and selling, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The PBOC and the finance ministry are exploring ways to incorporate treasury bond trading into their policy toolkit. He emphasized that this practice would not be equivalent to quantitative easing, a strategy where monetary authorities acquire assets like government bonds to reduce yields after exhausting traditional policy tools. The PBOC’s bond trading wi

China’s housing market continued to decline in May as manufacturing disappointed expectations. The real estate sector saw declines in investment and home prices, while industrial output gained 5.6% in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the latter slowing from April and missing Bloomberg projections. Retail sales did better than expected, but China’s consumers are still reluctant to return to pre-pandemic spending habits, Bloomberg reported. This lackluster scenario may prompt Beijing to spur consumer demand in an effort to meet 5% growth targets, possibly through increased government spending and central-bank efforts to put a floor under housing markets and boost l

In a bid to stabilize the yuan and manage liquidity, the People’s Bank of China has decided to keep its key interest rate unchanged for the tenth consecutive month. What Happened: The PBOC has maintained the one-year policy loan rate, also known as the medium-term lending facility rate, at 2.5% for the tenth month in a row on Monday, reported Bloomberg. This decision aligns with the forecast in a Bloomberg survey. The bank also withdrew a net 55 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) from the banking system to prevent excessive liquidity. Despite a fragile recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, the PBOC has chosen to prioritize currency stability over reducing borrowing costs. This c

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is prioritizing long-term growth over near-term profits. However, analysts are warning that the e-commerce giant’s efforts might be hampered by fierce competition. What Happened: Alibaba’s market dominance has been significantly eroded due to increasing competition and a lack of focus on technological and pricing strategies, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Despite early signs of success, analysts are concerned that the competition could prevent Alibaba from regaining its former market dominance, according to the report. The company’s market share has fallen from an impressive 83% when it went public in 2014 to 39.5% currently, as per d

Chinese technology stocks are facing a significant downturn, nearing a technical correction due to profit-taking and geopolitical uncertainties. What Happened: The Hang Seng Tech Index, which tracks Chinese tech stocks listed in Hong Kong, fell by as much as 0.9% on Friday. This decline has pushed the index down more than 10% from its May 20 high, indicating a technical correction, according to Bloomberg. Major contributors to the decline include Meituan. (OTC:MPNGF) and Lenovo Group (OTC:LNVGF) The sector had previously seen a rally in April, driven by optimism in earnings. However, recent price cuts to AI services by Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEH

U.S. short sellers are speculating that the surge in Chinese stocks is over. Capital will likely shift to emerging markets outside of China. The trend has led to a selloff in Chinese stocks:  Baidu, Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) JD.com, Inc (NASDAQ:JD) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) Bilibili Inc (NASDAQ:BILI) PDD Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PDD). Bearish bets against BlackRock Inc's (NYSE:BLK) iShares China Large-Cap Exchange Traded Fund, which invests in Hong Kong equities like Tencent Holdings Ltd (OTC:TCEHY) and Meituan (OTC:MPNGY), have reached their highest since October 2020, as per S&P Global data.  Another iShares ETF that includes both Hong Kong and mainland stocks has

Xi Jinping’s government has introduced its most aggressive measures to date to rescue China’s struggling property market. On Thursday, Beijing announced a new plan that included easing mortgage regulations and urged local governments to purchase unsold homes, reflecting the authorities’ heightened concern over the sector’s impact on economic growth. The support package comprised several key components designed to revitalize the housing market. First-time homebuyers will benefit from reduced down-payment requirements of 15%, while second-home purchases require only 25%. Additionally, the central bank is providing 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) in funding to help government-backed firms

In April, China’s retail sales growth decelerated while industrial activity remained robust, according to data released on Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics. What Happened: Retail sales in April increased by 2.3% year-over-year, falling short of the 3.8% forecasted by a Reuters poll. This growth was also slower than the 3.1% reported in March. On the other hand, industrial production surged by 6.7% in April, surpassing the anticipated 5.5% growth and marking a significant increase from the 4.5% in March. Fixed asset investment for the first four months of the year rose by 4.2%, lower than the expected 4.6% increase. Real estate investment, however, saw a steeper decline, d

American billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper is bullish on China. Tepper is the founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund. He is also the owner of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League and Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer. David Tepper Piling Into China, Trimming Off U.S. Tech According to his fund’s latest 13F filing, Tepper loaded up on Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) stock and trimmed stake in U.S. technology behemoths including Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), among other big names. Also Re

U.S. major stock indices climbed higher on Thursday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average achieving a historic milestone by surpassing 40,000 points. Blue-chip stocks are experiencing their thirteenth positive session out of the last fifteen, extending the bull market that commenced in October to a 24% rally. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 both inched up by 0.1%, further updating their record highs, driven by soft economic data. See Also: EXCLUSIVE – Andrew Left Disagrees With ‘Dumb Money’ GameStop Storyline ‘As If The Short Sellers Were The Bad Guys’ For the week ending May 11, unemployment benefit claims fell by 10,000 to 222,000, although this remains the third-highe

With the China internet sector up 15% year-to-date (or KraneShares Trust KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE: KWEB) +30% from late-January lows), Goldman Sachs analyst Ronald Keung highlighted the critical numbers in focus heading in the Tencent Holding Ltd (OTC:TCEHY) and Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) prints and the investor debates as the companies kick off the results.  The analyst noted first-quarter bottom line (with different earnings set up where he expects +15% year-on-year operating profit growth for Tencent and -8% group EBITA decline yoy at Alibaba, yet mostly priced-in) forward-looking commentaries around second-quarter top-line growth across Tencent’s games r

Wall Street kicked off a data-heavy week on a mixed note as traders await key inflation updates and remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell in the coming days. The S&P 500 remained stable, hovering around Friday’s closing levels and not far from record highs. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%, poised for its third consecutive session of gains, marking the seventh positive session in the last eight. Blue-chip stocks were also trading flat at midday, striving to extend their winning streak to the ninth consecutive day. The Russell 2000, tracking small-cap stocks, managed to outperform, up 0.6%. Treasury yields moved slightly lower, with the 10-year yield easing from 4.5% to 4.47%. The iShare

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME) reported a fiscal first-quarter 2024 revenue decline of 3.4% year-over-year to $937.0 million (6.77 billion Chinese yuan), beating the analyst consensus estimate of $917.6 million.  The decline reflected a fall in revenues from social entertainment services, partially mitigated by strong year-over-year growth in revenues from online music services. China’s leading online music and audio entertainment platform’s adjusted EPADS of $0.15 (CNY1.09) beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.14. Key Metrics: Monthly active users (MAUs) for online music declined by 2.4% year over year to 578 million, and mobile MAUs for social entertainment decr

The year 2024 has reportedly seen a record number of U.S.-listed China-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) closing down, marking an all-time high since the inception of these funds. This trend reflects growing investor concerns about the world’s second-largest economy. What Happened: According to data from Morningstar Direct, 13 U.S.-listed China ETFs have ceased operations in the first quarter of 2024 alone, the Financial Times reported on Monday. This surge in closures significantly surpasses the previous annual record of five closures in 2020 and 2023. Despite the global popularity of ETFs, which have seen 58 consecutive months of net inflows, leading to a record $12.7 trillion in

Fitch Ratings has issued a stark warning about the potential economic fallout of aggressive trade tariffs proposed by former President Donald Trump should he win this year’s presidential elections. The credit rating agency predicts that significant increases in U.S. trade tariffs, especially against China, could lead to a noticeable reduction in both U.S. and global economic output. In a newly released report, Fitch managing director Brian Coulton outlines that “sharp increases in U.S. trade tariffs seem highly likely in the event of a second Donald Trump presidency.” The potential for a renewed U.S.-led trade war in 2025 is growing, with Trump suggesting possible tariff hikes on

China's stock market has been a hot topic in 2024, and for good reason. After a rough start, marked by a sharp decline in January due to derivative-related issues, Chinese stocks have staged an impressive comeback. China ETFs Outperform U.S. Chart: Benzinga Pro Key ETFs such as KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE:KWEB), KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A 50 Connect Index ETF (NYSE:KBA), iShares MSCI China ETF (NASDAQ:MCHI), and iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSE:FXI) have outperformed major U.S.-equity ETFs, such as the S&P 500 index-tracking SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), since February, signaling a potential shift in the market landscape. Chart: Benzinga Pro Als

Once haunted by a domestic real estate collapse reminiscent of a Lehman-like crisis, Chinese stocks witnessed a significant rally in the first part of the year, reviving investor bets on the beginning of a more serious and robust recovery. On Tuesday (May 7), the SSE Composite Index, which includes all stocks listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, reached its highest level since September 2023, showcasing a rally of about 19% from the lows in 2024. The revival in Chinese stocks can be attributed to a confluence of factors. Key among these is the country’s economic recovery, which has gathered pace after years of turbulence following the bursting of a real estate bubble. China's econ

Recent deals from Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) are expected to bolster China’s tech market. What Happened: Elon Musk-led Tesla is partnering with Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) to introduce driver assistance features in China. Apple, under the helm of CEO Tim Cook, is expanding its production footprint in Southeast Asia and India, striking a delicate balance between political pressures and business expansion. "There's only two companies able to thread the needle in terms of China-US. It's Cook in Cupertino, and Musk and Tesla,” said Wedbush’s Dan Ives in the backdrop of Cook and Musk’s recent China visits. Related: Tesla’s FSD Nod Win Seen As Move To ‘Smooth Over

In a surprising turn of events, UBS Group AG has made a rare upgrade call, lifting its recommendation on a key Chinese stock index to Overweight. As of 2 p.m. ET, Chinese equity tracking ETFs such as the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSE:FXI) was trading up 1.52%, KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE:KWEB) was up 2.86%, and iShares MSCI China ETF (NASDAQ:MCHI) was up 1.26%. Stocks of Chinese companies also shared in the optimism with Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA) (OTC:BABAF) was up 2.65%, PDD Holdings (NASDAQ:PDD) up 2.87%, Tencent Holdings ADR (OTC:TCEHY) up 3.51%, Li Auto Inc (NASDAQ:LI) up 0.24%, XPeng (NYSE:XPEV) up 2.29%, NIO – ADR (NYSE:NIO) up 2.50%, and JD.com (NASDAQ:J

As global economic dynamics shift, investors are eyeing China and India with renewed interest. The Asian Development Bank‘s (ADB) bullish outlook positions China as a key growth engine despite a slight slowdown. China: Despite a moderate slowdown, China remains a dominant force in global growth. ADB's chief economist Albert Park says: "China is obviously going to still be important for some time to come. They still account for nearly half of GDP in Asia Pacific," said India: India’s stellar growth outlook positions it as a rising star in the region, with ADB forecasting robust economic expansion in the coming years. India’s impressive economic trajectory underscores its rising importa