Over half of China’s new bitcoin traders are women

Over half of China’s new bitcoin traders are women

Staff Reporter

2013-11-30

The number of bitcoin traders in China increased dramatically in November as the virtual currency’s va ue rose to US$1,100. More than half of the new traders are women, according to Chinese bitcoin trading platform Huobi and the Beijing Morning Post. Huobi CEO Li Lin said the makeup of Chinese bitcoin traders changed a great deal in November. In the past most were people working at the IT or financial sectors, while newcomers over the past month have been from every walk of life and over half of them female. Read more of this post

China’s crackdown on luxury gifts raises industry fears

November 29, 2013 5:27 pm

China’s crackdown on luxury gifts raises industry fears

By Adam Thomson in Paris

For the past few years, as financial chaos tore through the US and a sovereign debt crisis crushed growth in Europe, the world’s luxury goods groups have done the best business in at least a decade. The reason? China. Between 2010 and last year, brands from the comparatively small and exclusive Hermès to the bling of Louis Vuitton have seen the mix of China’s emerging wealth and its population’s love of all things luxury fatten an entire industry – during the leanest times almost anyone can remember. Read more of this post

Editorial: Asean Can’t Afford To Let AEC Fall Flat

Editorial: Asean Can’t Afford To Let AEC Fall Flat

By Jakarta Globe on 4:46 pm November 30, 2013.
The 21st century has been described as the Pacific Century as the economic center of gravity shifts east. The rise of China coupled with the strong growth of India and the nations that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has generated a great deal of optimism. Asean is a central clog in this new landscape. A market of 500 million consumers, it is seen as an important region, both in terms of geopolitics as well as economics. The region is rich in natural resources, has a large manufacturing base and straddles major sea lanes. Read more of this post

Thai Protesters Plan to Oust Yingluck as Two Die in Bangkok

Thai Protesters Plan to Oust Yingluck as Two Die in Bangkok

Anti-government protesters are set to step up their drive to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today after violence overnight left at least two people dead and the central bank warned that the unrest is hurting the economy. Two people were killed and 45 were injured in clashes between pro- and anti-government supporters near Ramkhamhaeng University, Amnaj Anartngam, assistant police commander, said in a televised briefing today. Demonstrators in Bangkok plan today to seize the prime minister’s office, police headquarters and other government offices including the foreign and commerce ministries, according to anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who’s seeking to paralyze the administration. Read more of this post

China’s anti-monopoly probe may be positive for MediaTek: analyst

China’s anti-monopoly probe may be positive for MediaTek: analyst

CNA
December 2, 2013, 12:01 am TWN

TAIPEI — Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek Inc., which supplies chips mostly to Chinese phone makers, might benefit from a recent anti-monopoly probe in China into its rival, Qualcomm Inc., according to a foreign brokerage analyst. Qualcomm, the world’s largest maker of chips for smartphones, disclosed Nov. 25 that China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had opened an investigation into the company related to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law. Read more of this post

Based on history, investors should now be looking for cheap stocks whose issuers’ fortunes could revive.Why GM, Safeway, Hewlett-Packard, Owens Illinois, and others fit the bill

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2013

Time to Muscle Up With Turnarounds

By JACK HOUGH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Based on history, investors should now be looking for cheap stocks whose issuers’ fortunes could revive.Why GM, Safeway, Hewlett-Packard, Owens Illinois, and others fit the bill.

History suggests that it’s an excellent time to shop for turnaround stocks. When an underachieving company cuts costs, pays down debt, wins new customers, or finds other ways to drive profits higher, the result is often a rapid rise in its share price. And such companies tend to lead the market when bond yields rise. That looks likely to happen soon, with the Federal Reserve preparing to scale back massive bond purchases that have held yields down. Turnaround stocks to consider include Delta Air Lines (ticker: DAL),General Motors (GM), Pitney Bowes (PBI), Safeway (SWY), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ), and Owens-Illinois (OI). Read more of this post

The complex market of property: Not many people know that the biggest property players in Malaysia started off doing something else

Updated: Saturday November 30, 2013 MYT 11:57:08 AM

The complex market of property

BY RISEN JAYASEELAN, YVONNE TAN, AND NG BEI SHAN

Jumping on the property bandwagon

NOT many people know that the biggest property players in the country started off doing something else. A good example is Mah Sing Group Bhd, the second largest property company in terms of sales, which began as a plastic manufacturer. And S P Setia Bhd’s roots are in the construction industry. Then there was the wave of plantation companies capitalising on their land bank to become property developers. IOI Corp Bhd comes to mind. Read more of this post

One for all, all for one: Malaysia is what it is today because of the contributions of all races

Updated: Sunday December 1, 2013 MYT 8:53:59 AM

One for all, all for one

BY WONG CHUN WAI

Malaysia is what it is today because of the contributions of all races.

IT’S a mammoth task, really. Six months after the general election, the National Unity Consultative Council has finally been formed. The council has been given six months to organise programmes that transcend race and religion aimed at bringing the nation together. As the Prime Minister himself cautioned during the launch of the council last week, Malaysia is a “complex country”. Read more of this post

Two Bubble Hunters Size Up the World: Jeffrey Gundlach and Robert Shiller see opportunities in stocks and bonds—and massive housing inflation in Norway

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2013

Shiller and Gundlach Size Up the World

By LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Jeffrey Gundlach and Robert Shiller see opportunities in stocks and bonds—and massive housing inflation in Norway.

At first glance, Robert Shiller and Jeffrey Gundlach make an odd pair. Shiller, recently awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his “empirical analysis of asset prices,” is soft-spoken and has the professorial demeanor befitting a Yale academic. Indexes bearing his name for stock valuations and home prices have become part of the nation’s financial lexicon. Gundlach is a brash, sometimes bombastic bond titan. He is CEO of DoubleLine Capital, a Los Angeles asset manager with $53 billion in assets, mostly in fixed income. But the two have plenty in common. Gundlach, for instance, did doctoral work in mathematics at Yale and, like Shiller, has a good eye for bubbles; he spotted trouble in the housing market before it collapsed in 2008. Now, Gundlach and Shiller have launched the DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE fund (ticker: DSEEX), which Gundlach will manage. The fund is tied to a Shiller innovation—the CAPE, or cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio. That’s stock prices divided by their average earnings over the past 10 years, adjusted for inflation; the fund gravitates to low-CAPE sectors. We recently sat down with the pair to discuss stocks, bonds, and a monstrous housing bubble—this time in Norway. Read more of this post

Nobel Prize economist warns of US stock market bubble

Nobel Prize economist warns of US stock market bubble

Sunday, December 1, 2013 – 22:28

Reuters

BERLIN – An American who won this year’s Nobel Prize for economics believes sharp rises in equity and property prices could lead to a dangerous financial bubble and may end badly, he told a German magazine. Robert Shiller, who won the esteemed award with two other Americans for research into market prices and asset bubbles, pinpointed the US stock market and Brazilian property market as areas of concern. Read more of this post

Where Factory Apprenticeship Is Latest Model From Germany

November 30, 2013

Where Factory Apprenticeship Is Latest Model From Germany

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

GREER, S.C. — For Joerg Klisch, hiring the first 60 workers to build heavy engines at his company’s new factory in South Carolina was easy. Finding the next 60 was not so simple. “It seemed like we had sucked up everybody who knew about diesel engines,” said Mr. Klisch, vice president for North American operations of Tognum America. “It wasn’t working as we had planned.” Read more of this post

Some Big Public Pension Funds Are Behaving Like Activist Investors

NOVEMBER 28, 2013, 8:48 PM

Some Big Public Pension Funds Are Behaving Like Activist Investors

By RANDALL SMITH

Activist investors like Carl C. Icahn, Daniel S. Loeb and William A. Ackman are getting deep-pocketed imitators. Some of the biggest public pension funds, which have sought to influence companies for years, are now starting to emulate these investors by engaging with, and sometimes seeking to oust, directors of companies whose stock they own.

Read more of this post

Why Burberry is Fighting for its Trademark in China

Nov 28, 2013

Why Burberry is Fighting for its Trademark in China

In one of the more noteworthy intellectual property setbacks for a foreign brand in China, Burberry is fighting to keep control of its signature “Haymarket Check” tartan pattern. To understand why, one most look back to a years-long dispute between the U.K. luxury brand and a Chinese brand with the rather un-Chinese sounding name of Polo Santa Roberta. Read more of this post

Wenzhou NPLs hit new high

Wenzhou NPLs hit new high

2013-11-29 01:57:27 GMT2013-11-29 09:57:27(Beijing Time)  Global Times

Non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector in Wenzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, hit a new high at the end of October, China Business News (CBN) reported Thursday, citing the latest data from Wenzhou Banking Regulatory Bureau. The NPL of Wenzhou’s banking sector totaled 31.13 billion yuan ($5.11 billion) by the end of October, while the NPL ratio reached 4.31 percent, hitting a new high since the second half of 2011, CBN said in the report. Fund guarantee chain risks and the slow growth of new bank loans were the major causes for the high amount of NPL.

Traditional banking sector in China faces downturn

Traditional banking sector in China faces downturn

Staff Reporter

2013-11-26

The website of Alibaba Group’s Yuebao fund. Yuebao is a subsidiary company under the Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group and is co-hosted by Tian Hong Asset Management. (Photo/CFP)

The banking industry in China has faced a downtrend due to the rise in popularity of online payment systems as well as interest rates being controlled by the market rather than the government or central bank, reports Shanghai’s First Financial Daily. Read more of this post

Technology and society: China has its own distinctive version of the maker movement, which spans electronics hobbyists and high-tech startups

Technology and society: China has its own distinctive version of the maker movement, which spans electronics hobbyists and high-tech startups

Nov 30th 2013 | From the print edition

IT IS a drizzly October day in Shanghai, and beneath a few dozen bright orange tents, set up in the plaza of a shiny new innovation park, hundreds of electronics hobbyists and entrepreneurs are attending China’s second Maker Carnival. The “maker” movement, an offshoot of do-it-yourself culture whose adherents design and build their own technology products, is more established in America: the most recent Maker Faire New York, for example, held in September, boasted some 75,000 participants and over 650 stalls. But size isn’t everything, even in China. Read more of this post

Short Circuit for Foreign Electronics Vendors; A ‘buy local’ push sparked by security concerns is hurting foreign and helping domestic makers of electronic gear

11.27.2013 15:53

Short Circuit for Foreign Electronics Vendors

A ‘buy local’ push sparked by security concerns is hurting foreign and helping domestic makers of electronic gear

By staff reporter Qin Min

(Beijing) – What’s hot lately in China’s electronics industry is not the latest gadget but procurement guidance from the central government that is starting to sting Western companies. That guidance can be summarized in two words: Buy local. Several sources close to the American electronics giant Cisco Systems Inc. told Caixin that Chinese government agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been told to “when possible” turn their backs on electronics equipment offered by overseas firms in favor of domestic company products. Read more of this post

Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang’s secret to success

Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang’s secret to success

Staff Reporter

2013-11-28

Ren Zhiqiang attends the Boao Forum for Asia. (Photo/CNS)

The 62-year-old chairman of Beijing Huayuan Property, Ren Zhiqiang, is known for his frank and straightforward criticism of China’s property policies. In an interview with the celebrity entrepreneur in late October, the Guangzhou-based Southern People Weekly unlocked the mystery of Ren’s outspoken character. Read more of this post

China’s reforms to hit investment trust industry hard: study

China’s reforms to hit investment trust industry hard: study

1:17am EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – The breakneck pace of growth in China’s 10 trillion yuan ($1.64 trillion) investment trust industry is unsustainable and earnings risk drying up as the government steps up financial reforms that will change sources of revenue, research shows. Close to 90 percent of revenues in the industry are at risk in the long run with about 40 percent of earnings forecast to disappear completely in five years, according to a study by consultant McKinsey & Company and Ping An Trust. Read more of this post

China Makes Environmental Case for Increasing Big Coal’s Clout

China Makes Environmental Case for Increasing Big Coal’s Clout

Beijing Wants State-Owned Giants to Manage Industry’s Development, Environmental Consequences

CHUIN-WEI YAP

Updated Nov. 28, 2013 8:08 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China is moving to increase the clout of its state-owned coal giants, as it seeks to clean up a sprawling and heavily polluting industry that is nevertheless crucial to its energy needs. In a policy proposal unveiled Thursday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it wants big corporate champions to manage the economic development and environmental consequences of the industry, which also has a slew of smaller operators. Read more of this post

China Faces CNY$20Trl Infrastructure Funding Gap in 2020 for Urbanization Drive: Think Tank

China Faces CNY$20Trl Infrastructure Funding Gap in 2020 for Urbanization Drive: Think Tank

11-29 11:24 Caijing Read more of this post

The J.Crew Invasion

The J.Crew Invasion

By Emma Rosenblum November 27, 2013

Dozens of shivering British fashion bloggers, TV personalities, and socialites snake down London’s Regent Street, waiting patiently to get into the Nov. 6 opening night party for the J.Crew flagship store. Inside, bearded men like James Middleton, brother of Kate and Pippa, browse skinny ties and shrunken blazers. Women in full skirts and crop tops paw through tables of pastel cashmere. Everyone’s hair is chicly disheveled, as are their teeth. On the stairs up to the second level of the 17,000-square-foot space, the biggest of the three J.Crew stores that opened in London in November, two partyers pause. “Oh! There’s Mickey and Jenna,” one whispers reverentially, pointing at J.Crew Chief Executive Officer Millard “Mickey” Drexler and Creative Director and President Jenna Lyons. He’s playing town mayor in a navy blazer and a white button-down. She’s in sparkly green pumps and her signature oversize black glasses. There’s a photo booth and Champagne cocktails, and it’s all very fabulous and also kind of funny, because it’s just J.Crew, after all. Read more of this post

How Alyssa Milano Created a Fan-Gear Fashion Empire for Women

How Alyssa Milano Created a Fan-Gear Fashion Empire for Women

By Joel Stein November 27, 2013

Alyssa Milano isn’t crazy about pink. “I was in Dodger Stadium, and I was freezing—it was the beginning of the season, before the poop smell sets in,” says the star of TV’s Who’s the Boss? and Charmed, recalling a baseball game she attended eight years ago. “I went into the store to get something warm to wear. And I was offended.” The only color available in women’s clothing was pink. “Their answer for female sports apparel back then was ‘pink it and shrink it.’ It was either that or buy something from the kids’ section. Which I did. I got a kid’s hoodie.” In Dodger blue. Read more of this post

Sugar Mills to Prolong Shutdown in India’s Uttar Pradesh on Cane

Sugar Mills to Prolong Shutdown in India’s Uttar Pradesh on Cane

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest growing state, will extend a shutdown to prevent losses from widening as a dispute over pricing of cane continues, potentially reducing the country’s output, a millers’ group said. Factories will remain shut as the mills can only pay 225 rupees ($3.60) per 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cane, compared with the state-set price of 280 rupees, Abinash Verma, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, told reporters in New Delhi today. India ranks second globally among sugar producers after Brazil. Read more of this post

Despite a tarnished record, commodities have not lost their lustre for all

Despite a tarnished record, commodities have not lost their lustre for all

Nov 30th 2013 | From the print edition

GRAIN silos, oil pipelines and copper smelters are not exactly glamorous. Yet for a glorious couple of years up until mid-2008, commodities were all the rage. China was booming, and supplies of everything from soyabeans to iron ore were failing to keep pace, prompting a giddy leap in prices. Financial engineers minted all manner of products tied to these movements. Not only were commodities on a roll, their patter went; they also provided a crucial hedge for any diversified portfolio, since they did not move in tandem with other assets. Read more of this post

GrainCorp Verdict Clouds Australia Open-For-Business Pledge

GrainCorp Verdict Clouds Australia Open-For-Business Pledge

The Australian government’s decision to block Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM)’s takeover of GrainCorp Ltd. comes 12 weeks after Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s election-night vow that Australia is open for business. Citing national interest grounds, Treasurer Joe Hockey barred the A$2.2 billion ($2 billion) deal in the biggest rejection since Singapore Exchange Ltd.’s A$8.4 billion bid for ASX Ltd. was blocked in 2011. Also this week, Hockey flagged the possibility of taxpayer support for national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) Australia’s dollar fell and GrainCorp’s shares plunged 22 percent after today’s announcement. Read more of this post

Canada Pension Funds Bet on Asia’s Growth

Canada Pension Funds Bet on Asia’s Growth

CPP Investment Board Teams with Mumbai Group for New Venture; Caisse Buys Australian Port Stake

BEN DUMMETT

Nov. 28, 2013 11:50 a.m. ET

TORONTO–Canada’s two biggest pension funds continue to demonstrate their prowess as global investors, making bets that Asia’s economic growth will drive demand for commercial real estate and shipping services. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the country’s largest pension fund, said Thursday it is committing $200 million for an 80% stake in a new venture with Mumbai-based Shapoorji Pallonji Group to invest in commercial real estate in India to take advantage of the Asian country’s growing economy. Read more of this post

S&P justifies its concerns on Malaysia’s household debt

Updated: Friday November 29, 2013 MYT 7:00:53 AM

S&P justifies its concerns on household debt

BY CHOONG EN HAN

PETALING JAYA: The credit cycle is at its best, with Malaysia’s economy enjoying full employment, but ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) believes that as household debt continues to rise, systemic imbalances will pose a risk to financial institutions. Read more of this post