China Financial Markets

After the globally coordinated rescue package was announced Monday the Chinese stock markets boomed in sympathy with the rest of the world, with the SSE Composite closing up 3.6% for the day.  Tuesday the SSE Composite shot up 3.5% within minutes of opening, but the party was already over in China.  Over the rest of [...]

We’re starting the holiday week – October 1 is the anniversary of the 1949 revolution – so markets were closed today and will be closed for the rest of the week, and there’s a pretty good chance not a whole lot will happen on the policy front until the end of the holiday schedule.  Much [...]

What was supposed to be largely a US financial crisis seems to be spreading even further.  This might come as both a surprise and an annoyance to those who believe that the cause of the crisis was specific mistakes made by US bankers and regulators, but much less of a surprise to those who assume [...]

While Monday’s stock market, led by the banks, continued Friday’s big bounce back, rising 7.8% to add to Friday’s 9.5% surge, leaving us at a 2-week high (largely on buyback talk, I think), worries about the banking sector actually seemed to be deepening.  Today, perhaps in response, the stock market was a lot more confused, [...]

Finally we have a piece of somewhat good news.  Industrial production was up only 17.9% year on year in October, down substantially from September’s 18.9% year-on-year rise.  Not only is this well below last month’s number, it is also well below expectations, which were for an 18.3-18.5% rise.   But we shouldn’t get too excited [...]