Chinese Investors Refocus on Domestic Assets; Raising Cash Is an Uphill Task for Chinese Funds That Invest Overseas

Chinese Investors Refocus on Domestic Assets

Raising Cash Is an Uphill Task for Chinese Funds That Invest Overseas

CHAO DENG

Chinese investors are shying away from overseas markets in favor of domestic assets, even though many funds invested abroad delivered double-digit returns last year. Read more of this post

China’s Leaders Move to Rein In Steel Mecca; Central Government Tells Industrial Province to Do More to Curb Output as Pressure Mounts to Improve Air Quality

China’s Leaders Move to Rein In Steel Mecca

Central Government Tells Industrial Province to Do More to Curb Output as Pressure Mounts to Improve Air Quality

CHUIN-WEI YAP

Jan. 5, 2014 10:00 p.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s push to clean up its heavily polluted environment and wring out excess industrial capacity is shaking up the heart of its steel country. Read more of this post

China’s Cabinet Drafts Shadow-Banking Plan

China’s Cabinet Drafts Shadow-Banking Plan

LINGLING WEI And BOB DAVIS

an. 6, 2014 3:02 a.m. ET

BEIJING — China’s cabinet has drafted a new framework for beefing up regulation of shadow-banking activities, in a sign that the Chinese leadership is seeking to slow the growth of debt and bolster the country’s economic stability. Read more of this post

China’s little emperors’ reality TV check; Show taps into parents’ middle-class angst over China’s child rearing

January 7, 2014 11:48 am

China’s little emperors’ reality TV check

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai

Show taps into parents’ middle-class angst over China’s child rearing, writes Patti Waldmeir

The one-child policy has been blamed for everything from a shortage of brides to an epidemic of childhood obesity but, to judge from Chinese television, the bigger worry is that it has created a generation of wimps. Read more of this post

China will begin conducting spot checks this year on assets and other personal information reported by officials to the ruling Communist Party and punish those with hidden wealth

China to carry out spot checks on officials’ asset declarations

Fri, Jan 3 2014

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will begin conducting spot checks this year on assets and other personal information reported by officials to the ruling Communist Party and punish those with hidden wealth, state media reported. Read more of this post

China to try to make local, national GDP stats match amid skepticism

China to try to make local, national GDP stats match amid skepticism

7:18am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will unify the way it calculates provincial economic output to help close a gap with national figures, the country’s chief statistician said on Tuesday, amid skepticism about the reliability of Chinese data. Read more of this post

China $50 Billion Power Goal Leads to Australia: Real M&A

China $50 Billion Power Goal Leads to Australia: Real M&A

State Grid Corp. of China’s search for as much as $50 billion of international power assets may reveal that Duet Group and Spark Infrastructure Group are among Australia’s most attractive takeover targets. Read more of this post

What could happen in China in 2014?

What could happen in China in 2014?

The year ahead could see companies focus on driving productivity, CIOs becoming a hot commodity, shopping malls going bankrupt, and European soccer clubs finally investing in Chinese ones. McKinsey director Gordon Orr makes his annual predictions.

January 2014 | byGordon Orr

1. Two phrases will be important for 2014: ‘productivity growth’ and ‘technological disruption’ Read more of this post

Telecom Deal by China’s ZTE, Huawei in Ethiopia Faces Criticism

Telecom Deal by China’s ZTE, Huawei in Ethiopia Faces Criticism

For Ethiopians, a Chinese Telecom Project Changes Lives but Draws Scrutiny

MATTHEW DALTON

Updated Jan. 6, 2014 11:01 p.m. ET

LAKE WENCHI, Ethiopia—In the green highlands here southwest of Addis Ababa, farmers like Darara Baysa are proud owners of cellphones that run on a network built by China’sZTE Corp. 000063.SZ -1.25% Read more of this post

Shadow Banking Risks Exposed by Local Debt Audit: China Credit

Shadow Banking Risks Exposed by Local Debt Audit: China Credit

China’s audit of local governments exposed an increased reliance on shadow banking, swelling the risk of default on 17.9 trillion yuan ($3 trillion) of debt.

Bank lending dropped to 57 percent of direct and contingent liabilities as of June 30 from 79 percent at the end of 2010, while bonds rose to 10 percent from 7 percent, National Audit Office data show. Trust financing surged to 8 percent from zero, while other channels that sidestep loan curbs accounted for the remaining 25 percent. The yield on five-year AA notes, the most common rating for local government financing vehicles, jumped by a record 158 basis points last year to 7.6 percent. That exceeds the 5 percent on emerging-market corporate notes, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show. Read more of this post

Rising home prices send China’s ‘Rat Race’ scurrying underground

Rising home prices send China’s ‘Rat Race’ scurrying underground

Sun, Jan 5 2014

By Koh Gui Qing and Aileen Wang

BEIJING (Reuters) – Zig-zagging left and right through a maze of dark, narrow corridors in a high-rise’s basement, 35-year-old kitchen worker Hu has joined the many thousands of Chinese fleeing fast-rising property prices by heading down – down underground. Read more of this post

PBOC Shows Strongest Hand on China’s Shadow Banks

PBOC Shows Strongest Hand on China’s Shadow Banks

Inaction by Regulators Hampered Central Bank’s Efforts, Analysts Say

SHEN HONG

Jan. 7, 2014 1:36 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—China’s move to step up regulation of its shadow-banking system highlights the weakness of its financial regulators, which have failed to slow the country’s lending boom even as top government officials raised concerns. Read more of this post

Lure Of China’s Gray Economy Reaches Rich And Poor

Lure Of China’s Gray Economy Reaches Rich And Poor

by ANTHONY KUHN

January 02, 2014 4:35 PM

The income gap is growing dramatically in China and the rich are getting exponentially richer — the richest 10 percent of China’s population are more than three times wealthier than the official figures. Read more of this post

How China crashed the Nafta party; The negotiators of the ambitious and contentious 1994 free-trade deal failed to anticipate the rise in cheap imports from Asia

How China crashed the Nafta party

The negotiators of the ambitious and contentious 1994 free-trade deal failed to anticipate the rise in cheap imports from Asia

According to western tradition, the gift for the 20th anniversary of a union is china. But, two decades on from the trade nuptials enshrined in the theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), China is the uninvited guest that has walked away with many of the gifts. Read more of this post

Head Of China’s Railway Company Commits Suicide: First Graft Probe Casualty?

Head Of China’s Railway Company Commits Suicide: First Graft Probe Casualty?

Tyler Durden on 01/06/2014 09:33 -0500

Bai Zhongren, then Executive Director and Vice President of China Railway Group Limited, attends a news conference in Hong Kong in this April 25, 2008 file photo. Photo: Reuters

Bai Zhongren, the president of state-run China Railway Group – the state-owned engineering giant behind many of the country’s largest railway projects – committed suicide over the weekend. As SCMP reports, Bai is among several senior railway officials and executives who have committed suicide since corruption scandals implicating the senior railway officials began to come to light three years ago. Read more of this post

China makes fresh bid to curb shadow banking, contain debt risk

China makes fresh bid to curb shadow banking, contain debt risk

6:07am EST

By Heng Xie and Gabriel Wildau

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s cabinet has published guidelines strengthening regulation of risky off-balance-sheet lending in a new effort to address growing financial risks from an explosion in debt. Read more of this post

Cash crunch signals policy dilemma for China’s reformist central bank

Cash crunch signals policy dilemma for China’s reformist central bank

4:35pm EST

By Kevin Yao

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank looks set to risk another cash crunch at the end of January, barely a month after the last market squeeze, as policymakers press ahead with a crackdown on shadow financing and other risky bank lending. Read more of this post

Buffett-Backed BYD Says Chinese Cars Headed for U.S. in 2015

Buffett-Backed BYD Says Chinese Cars Headed for U.S. in 2015

Chinese cars are poised to begin hitting U.S. showrooms by as soon as next year.

BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett’s Berskshire Hathaway Inc., plans to introduce about four models for its U.S. debut at the end of 2015, said Stella Li, the senior vice president in charge of the company’s U.S. business, in an interview last week. Though BYD wasn’t ready when it earlier sought to enter the U.S. car market in 2010, the company is more prepared this time, she said. Read more of this post

For Asia, 2014 Looks Like a Year of Higher Interest Rates

Jan 6, 2014

For Asia, 2014 Looks Like a Year of Higher Interest Rates

By Natasha Brereton-Fukui and Michael S. Arnold

For much of 2013, India and Indonesia were outliers in Asia, raising interest rates and tightening policy. This year, the rest of the region is expected to join them. Read more of this post

Asia’s Domestic Demand Means Less Focus on Exports

Jan 6, 2014

Asia’s Domestic Demand Means Less Focus on Exports

By Michael S. Arnold

Why has Asia continued to record strong economic growth in recent years, despite the West’s struggles? Partly it’s because more Asian trade is remaining within Asia. But it’s also because for many Asian economies, exports simply are less important than they used to be. Read more of this post

Shares of Drive-In Chain May Be Overcooked; Sonic Has Appreciated 200% in Past Two Calendar Years

Shares of Drive-In Chain May Be Overcooked

Sonic Has Appreciated 200% in Past Two Calendar Years

SPENCER JAKAB

Jan. 5, 2014 2:35 p.m. ET

The cardinal rule with fast food is to get it while it’s hot. Shares of Sonic SONC -0.60%Corp, the world’s largest drive-in chain, seem like they have been under the heat lamp for a while, though. Read more of this post

Restaurants Fear Clout of a New Food Giant

Restaurants Fear Clout of a New Food Giant

ANNIE GASPARRO and JESSE NEWMAN

Jan. 6, 2014 7:26 p.m. ET

Bobby Williams used to rely on US Foods Inc. to supply most of the ingredients for Lizard’s Thicket, the chain of Southern home-cooking restaurants his family owns in South Carolina. Read more of this post

Nestlé to Sell U.S. Frozen Pasta Business; Disposal Part of Food Group’s Plans to Pare Down Roster of Brands

Nestlé to Sell U.S. Frozen Pasta Business

Disposal Part of Food Group’s Plans to Pare Down Roster of Brands

RYAN DEZEMBER

Updated Jan. 6, 2014 6:47 a.m. ET

Nestlé SA NESN.VX -0.38% is saying arrivederci to its U.S. frozen ravioli business, part of the Swiss food giant’s plans to pare down its roster of brands. Nestlé has agreed to sell Joseph’s Pasta Co., which supplies restaurants with ravioli, manicotti and tortellini, to Brynwood Partners, a U.S. buyout firm that specializes in acquiring corporate castoffs. Read more of this post

Leading Chefs Say Latin Food Is Next Hot Culinary Trend

Leading Chefs Say Latin Food Is Next Hot Culinary Trend

Latin American cuisine is gaining international attention, with Peru leading the charge. In London alone, at least four Peruvian restaurants have opened in two years. Read more of this post

Lafite ’09 Slides Back to Liv-Ex Record Low of $10,800 a Case

Lafite ’09 Slides Back to Liv-Ex Record Low of $10,800 a Case

Three cases of 2009 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, a Medoc first-growth wine, sold for 6,600 pounds ($10,800) each in the past month, matching the Liv-ex exchange’s record low in October amid subdued Bordeaux demand. Read more of this post

Scientists have raised the prospect of diamonds being mined in Antarctica

January 5, 2014 5:40 pm

The search for a girl’s best friend at the bottom of the world

By Anjana Ahuja

Scientists have raised the prospect of diamonds being mined in Antarctica, writes Anjana Ahuja

The ups and downs of Hollywood’s greatest love affair were charted through bling. Gifts from Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor included the 69-carat Taylor-Burton diamond, the 33-carat internally flawless Elizabeth Taylor diamond, and the exquisite Taj Mahal diamond, once owned by a Mughal emperor. Read more of this post

Rubber Slumps Most in Seven Months as Stockpiles Swell in China

Rubber Slumps Most in Seven Months as Stockpiles Swell in China

Rubber in Tokyo slid the most in seven months on the first trading day of the year after data showed stockpiles in China expanded to a nine-year high, raising concern that demand from the largest consumer is weakening. Read more of this post

Dirtiest Coal’s Rebirth in Europe Flattens Medieval Towns

Dirtiest Coal’s Rebirth in Europe Flattens Medieval Towns

Europe’s appetite for cheaper electricity is reviving mines that produce the dirtiest type of coal, threatening to boost pollution and raze villages that have survived since medieval times. Read more of this post

The Future of Coal: Despite Gas Boom, Coal Isn’t Dead; Production Is Booming in Western U.S. to Feed Power Plants at Home and Abroad

The Future of Coal: Despite Gas Boom, Coal Isn’t Dead

Production Is Booming in Western U.S. to Feed Power Plants at Home and Abroad

JOHN W. MILLER and REBECCA SMITH

Jan. 6, 2014 12:53 p.m. ET

Last year was a tough one for the coal industry. James River Coal Co. JRCC +2.19% laid off a quarter of its workers. Consol Energy Inc.,CNX +0.48% which has mined coal since the Civil War, sold five Appalachian mines, representing nearly half its coal output. And more than a half-dozen U.S. coal-mining companies went under, beset by new environmental rules and competition from low-cost natural gas.

Read more of this post

Shale boom leaves investors underwhelmed

January 5, 2014 4:33 pm

Shale boom leaves investors underwhelmed

By Ed Crooks

Revolution offers benefits to consumers rather than shareholders

Lamenting the airline industry’s perennial unprofitability, Warren Buffett observed that “if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favour by shooting Orville [Wright] down”. Read more of this post