Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says; Sales of financial-data terminals declined sharply in China after its news service published articles on the family wealth of high-ranking politicians in the country

Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says
By NEIL GOUGHMARCH 20, 2014
Peter T. Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg L.P., said being in China “occupies a lot of our thinking.” CreditGonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
HONG KONG — The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. said in a speech here on Thursday that the company should have reconsidered articles that deviated from the core of its coverage, business news, in light of the huge potential for its products in the Chinese market.

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Corporate Lies Are Increasingly Immune to Investor Complaints

Corporate Lies Are Increasingly Immune to Investor Complaints
MARCH 20, 2014
High & Low Finance
By FLOYD NORRIS
Companies do not have a right to lie to their shareholders, a German judge ruled this week. But sometimes, she added, lies are necessary.

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Revisiting Gandhi, on the Banks of the Sabarmati; An old ashram is a place to reflect on a new India of skyrocketing growth

Revisiting Gandhi, on the Banks of the Sabarmati
MARCH 19, 2014
By MIRA KAMDAR
AHMEDABAD, India — As a teenager in the 1920s, my grandfather Prabhudas Kamdar was enthralled with Mahatma Gandhi. He devoured every issue of Gandhi’s magazine, Young India, as soon as it came out and was deeply drawn to Gandhi’s satyagraha movement.

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Five reasons why Malaysia is not in trouble

Updated: Thursday March 20, 2014 MYT 11:24:04 AM
Five reasons why Malaysia is not in trouble
BY CECILIA KOK

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is better prepared to manage another global financial crisis due to its sound economic and financial structure as well as the availability of a strong surveillance mechanism, according to Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Read more of this post

China’s government is planning to shift parts of its vast bureaucracy to a city 150km from Beijing, causing shares in companies linked to the struggling metropolis to surge in anticipation

March 19, 2014 6:09 pm
China to shift Beijing bureaucrats to Baoding
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
China’s government is planning to shift parts of its vast bureaucracy to a city 150km from Beijing, causing shares in companies linked to the struggling metropolis to surge in anticipation.

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Li & Fung to spin off US-focused brands and licensing divisions through stock split

March 20, 2014 12:13 pm
Li & Fung to spin off divisions through stock split
By Paul J Davies in Hong Kong
Li & Fung, which supplies toothbrushes and T-shirts to some of the world’s biggest retailers, will spin off its US-focused brands and licensing business through a stock split as it launches another round of restructuring.

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Why Japan invests too much

Why Japan invests too much
March 20, 2014 7:48 amby Andrew Smithers
The Japanese government is trying to encourage the country’s companies to increase the amount they invest. This is like trying to push water uphill. Japan as a whole and in terms of business already invests too much. Read more of this post

Let a hundred companies fail

March 19, 2014 3:21 pm
Let a hundred companies fail
China’s defaults are necessary but require careful handling
Since taking off five years ago, China’s debt market has had the appearance of a one-way bet. The country’s turbocharged growth meant corporations were typically in good enough financial health to pay back their loans. But even those companies that ran into trouble did not face the risk of default, since the government would order state-owned banks to ride to their rescue. The same principle applied to local authorities, which were put in the position to borrow large sums of money via off-balance sheet financial vehicles. Read more of this post

Slumping Fertility Rates in Developing Countries Spark Labor Worries; Birthrates Fall in Thailand, Raising Concerns about Aging Population

Slumping Fertility Rates in Developing Countries Spark Labor Worries
Birthrates Fall in Thailand, Raising Concerns about Aging Population
JAMES HOOKWAY
March 19, 2014 10:31 p.m. ET

BAAN TAM TA KEM, Thailand—Slumping fertility rates aren’t just a problem for wealthy countries anymore.
Birthrates have fallen in Thailand in recent years, making it one of the poorest countries facing the prospect of shrinking labor pools and an aging population. Such problems, while familiar in Europe and Japan, used to be unheard of in the up-and-coming economies of Southeast Asia. Read more of this post

U.S. Alleges Inside Traders Used Spycraft, Ate Evidence; Three Ran Ring Using Information From Top M&A Law Firm, Prosecutors Say

U.S. Alleges Inside Traders Used Spycraft, Ate Evidence
Three Ran Ring Using Information From Top M&A Law Firm, Prosecutors Say
JENNIFER SMITH
Updated March 19, 2014 8:55 p.m. ET
Prosecutors allege stock tips were often swapped by a clock in New York’s Grand Central Terminal.Associated Press
Three men ran an insider-trading ring with information from one of New York’s premier mergers-and-acquisitions law firms, prosecutors say, taking care to chat in code and flash stock tips on napkins or sticky notes before gobbling them down under the clock inside the teeming great hall of Grand Central Terminal.

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Crossing China’s Big Red Currency Line

Crossing China’s Big Red Currency Line
ALEX FRANGOS
March 20, 2014 1:32 a.m. ET
China’s currency slide continues, crossing a level that traders worry will trigger turmoil for investors. Heard on the Street columnists Alex Frangos, Abheek Bhattacharya and Aaron Back debate what Beijing is aiming to do by letting its currency move sharply lower.
The big red currency has crossed a big red line. It might not be so scary on the other side.

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The ‘Singapore Solution’ to China’s Stock Woes?

The ‘Singapore Solution’ to China’s Stock Woes
Allowing companies to list directly overseas is good for regulators and investors.
PAUL GILLIS
March 19, 2014 11:34 a.m. ET
Alibaba has finally announced its plan to list its shares in New York, after months of speculation about the location. This is a blow to Hong Kong, which had courted the Chinese tech company but was unwilling to change its rules to allow founder Jack Ma to keep control of the company after the listing. But this is also a blow to Chinese investors, who will yet again be denied an opportunity to invest in one of their country’s most successful firms.

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Developers Offer a Peek at Shanghai’s Dream Center; Big projects like the Dream Center have been more heavily scrutinized lately amid concerns about over building and tightened credit in China

Developers Offer a Peek at Shanghai’s Dream Center
ESTHER FUNG
March 20, 2014 9:48 a.m. ET
SHANGHAI— DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. DWA +0.22% and its Chinese partners say they plan to build live performance theaters and concert halls in a 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) Shanghai project that will open in 2017 or early 2018.
“The size and scale [of the project] has gotten bigger and bigger,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation’s chief executive. “Securing the necessary approvals and getting financing took a longer time than expected.”

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Luxury Brands Look to South Korea for China Sales Boost; Korean Sitcoms Are Popular Among Fashion-Conscious Chinese Consumers

Luxury Brands Look to South Korea for China Sales Boost
Korean Sitcoms Are Popular Among Fashion-Conscious Chinese Consumers
WEI GU
Updated March 20, 2014 8:44 a.m. ET

Luxury brands see sales jump thanks to Korean wave in China. HSBC’s Erwan Rambourg tells the WSJ’s Wei Gu who is benefiting from the popularity of Korean style in China.
To succeed in China, luxury brands are getting help from South Korea.

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Bank Indonesia Governor: Rates Could Potentially Continue to Rise

March 20, 2014, 9:42 a.m. ET
Bank Indonesia Governor: Rates Could Potentially Continue to Rise
By Farida Husna
JAKARTA, Indonesia–Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said Thursday that interest rates in emerging markets, including Indonesia, could potentially continue to rise if borrowing costs in the U.S. Increase.
“Such a condition is the new norm. Interest rates can’t fall too much,” Mr. Martowardojo told reporters.
Bank Indonesia last year increased interest rates by a total of 175 basis points since June as inflationary pressures increase and the country’s current-account deficit widened to a level it won’t be able to sustain for a long period.

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Bond Investors Are Skittish Over Chinese Property Developers; Prices, Volume Have Fallen After Reports of Potential Defaults

Bond Investors Are Skittish Over Chinese Property Developers
Prices, Volume Have Fallen After Reports of Potential Defaults
FIONA LAW
March 20, 2014 8:29 a.m. ET
Growing worries over the health of Chinese property developers are driving down bond prices and drying up trading volumes in the $47 billion market that had been a favorite of global investors.

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Foreign Investors Rush to Sell Japanese Stocks; Worries Grow That the Government Won’t Spur the Economy

Foreign Investors Rush to Sell Japanese Stocks
Worries Grow That the Government Won’t Spur the Economy
KOSAKU NARIOKA
March 20, 2014 8:12 a.m. ET
After pushing Japan’s stock market to its biggest gain in more than 40 years in 2013, the bulls are having second thoughts.
Foreign investors are selling Japanese stocks at the fastest pace in almost a decade, government data show, as worries grow that the country’s government won’t be able to follow through on its promises to spur the economy. Hedge funds and other speculative investors lifted the ratio of bets against Tokyo shares this week to the highest in five years, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
That has helped drive down the Nikkei Stock Average 13% in 2014, after a 57% jump last year. By contrast, the S&P 500 index had eked out a 1% gain through Wednesday.

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Falling Chinese Stocks, Alibaba IPO Loss Dim Hong Kong’s Luster

Falling Chinese Stocks, Alibaba IPO Loss Dim Hong Kong’s Luster
Hang Seng Among Worst-Performing Major Stock Indexes This Year
MIA LAMAR
March 20, 2014 6:14 a.m. ET
Hong Kong’s stock market, a longtime gateway to China for global investors, is losing its luster as signs of financial stress mount on the mainland and the exchange reels from the loss of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s initial public offering.

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Dropping Like Flies: Largest Steel Maker In China’s Shanxi Province Defaults On CNY 3 Billion In Debt

Dropping Like Flies: Largest Steel Maker In China’s Shanxi Province Defaults On CNY 3 Billion In Debt
Tyler Durden on 03/20/2014 09:09 -0400
When we started discussing the upcoming onslaught of corporate defaults in “Minsky Moment” China, now that the bankruptcy seal has been broken, we warned that the worst is about to come.

Well, it’s coming.
Overnight, Hong Kong’s The Standard reported that in addition to the solar, coal and real-estate developer companies that are on everyone’s radar as potential future bankruptcy candidates, one can also add steel makers to the list, with its report that Highsee Group, the largest private steel makers in Shanxi province has defaulted on CNY3 billion of debt, unable to repay its bonds on time.

According to The Standard, “Highsee Group’s 3 billion yuan debt was overdue last week,” the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday. “The company is running in red, and has failed to pay workers for months. Many of its furnaces have stopped operating.”
The reason for this most recent collapse: the plunge of domestic steel prices , which have fallen to their lowest level in more than eight years in mid-March as a result of weak demand and a surge in output.
Earlier, Shanxi coal miner Liansheng Resources Group went bankrupt while its loans, which were packaged into a wealth management product distributed by China Construction Bank (0939), are likely to be bailed out. UBS Securities securities analyst Chen Li said it is the peak season for corporate debt dues. Up to 80 percent of the nation’s trusts have obligations to meet within the second quarter, he added.
IBT adds that “Highsee Iron and Steel Group … is just one of numerous steel mills facing issues in the country. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that China produced 2.22 million tonnes of crude steel a day over the first two months of 2014, Reuters reports. This record amount was manufactured even though demand wasn’t as strong.”
It remains to be seen if Highsee is bailed out, however now that pretty much any corporation with exposure to the commodity and real estate space that has maturing debt is on the rocks, the PBOC may be better suited just to let the system cleanse itself, even if that means the collapse in both the Chinese stock market, which unlike the US is largely irrelevant (especially since it once again dropped below 2000 while the Hang Seng entered a bear market), but the bigger issue is that the Chinese housing bubble is set to burst both domestically and abroad,as we reported yesterday.
And lest readers are left with the impression that merely operational companies with direct exposure to the deleveraging carnage that is taking place in China – at least until such time as China unleashes another multi-trillion stimulus – are exposed, also overnight financial firm Southchina Futures announced it is terminating it business on “major operation risks.”
From the company’s website:
About South China Futures Brokerage Co. closure announcement

As the Company has significant business risks, some of the bank account was frozen Guizhou Court of Justice, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, the company passed a resolution to stop the shareholders’ meeting brokerage business futures, now specific announcement is as follows:

First, the announcement issued by the date, the South China Futures Brokerage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “the South China Futures”) is no longer accepting new customers open positions instructions.

Second, within five working days of the date of this announcement, make customers to handle the South China Futures cancellation procedures.

Third, the five working days after the publication of the notice, did not apply for cancellation procedures futures customer account funds will be transferred to the unified Huatai Great Wall Futures Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Huatai Great Wall Futures”).

Fourth, since the date of this announcement within ten working days from customers willing to open an account at Huatai Great Wall Futures, futures and South China Huatai Great Wall Futures will jointly provide customers with convenient handle channel, during the South China Huatai Great Wall Futures futures and customer acceptance , Tel: South Futures, (020) 38791617 ; Huatai Great Wall Futures, 4006280888.

Notice is hereby given.
Dropping like flies now.
We wonder how long until the US stock market, floating in its cloud of manipulated, centrally-planned oblivious innocence, realizes that a China on the verge of all out deflationary recession is not a good thing?

Foreign Investors Rush to Sell Japanese Stocks; Worries Grow That the Government Won’t Spur the Economy

Foreign Investors Rush to Sell Japanese Stocks
Worries Grow That the Government Won’t Spur the Economy
KOSAKU NARIOKA
March 20, 2014 8:12 a.m. ET
After pushing Japan’s stock market to its biggest gain in more than 40 years in 2013, the bulls are having second thoughts.
Foreign investors are selling Japanese stocks at the fastest pace in almost a decade, government data show, as worries grow that the country’s government won’t be able to follow through on its promises to spur the economy. Hedge funds and other speculative investors lifted the ratio of bets against Tokyo shares this week to the highest in five years, according to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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Students Occupy Taiwan’s Legislature to Protest China Pact

Students Occupy Taiwan’s Legislature to Protest China Pact
Trade Deal Is One of President Ma Ying-jeou’s Signature Achievements
JENNY HSU
Updated March 19, 2014 11:55 a.m. ET
TAIPEI—More than 1,000 students have occupied Taiwan’s legislature to protest the ruling party’s handling of a trade pact with China that has become a divisive political issue for the island.

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Shanghai Stock Exchange Raises Shareholding Cap for Foreign Investors; Foreigners Can Now Collectively Own 30% in a Single Firm

Shanghai Stock Exchange Raises Shareholding Cap for Foreign Investors
Foreigners Can Now Collectively Own 30% in a Single Firm
CHAO DENG
March 19, 2014 11:16 p.m. ET
SHANGHAI—The Shanghai Stock Exchange is easing restrictions on overseas investors, giving them more flexibility to invest in China’s tightly controlled capital markets.
With immediate effect, foreign investors can collectively own up to 30% in a single company, up from 20%, according to a statement on the exchange’s website on Wednesday. If foreign investors’ collective shareholding in a company exceeds 26%, the stock exchange will make a relevant announcement on the following trading day.
The cap on ownership in a company by an individual foreign investor remains at 10%.
The exchange also said that foreigners will be able to trade asset-backed securities.
Foreign investors currently buy Chinese stocks and bonds through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor and the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor programs. Both have expanded in recent years, giving foreigners greater quotas for investing on the mainland, although their ownership remains a fraction of China’s overall market.

The Music Just Ended: “Wealthy” Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash

The Music Just Ended: “Wealthy” Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash
Tyler Durden on 03/19/2014 21:11 -0400
One of the primary drivers of the real estate bubble in the past several years, particularly in the ultra-luxury segment, were megawealthy Chinese buyers, seeking to park their cash into the safety of offshore real estate where it was deemed inaccessible to mainland regulators and overseers, tracking just where the Chinese record credit bubble would end up. Some, such as us, called it “hot money laundering”, and together with foreclosure stuffing and institutional flipping (of rental units and otherwise), we said this was the third leg of the recent US housing bubble. However, while the impact of Chinese buying in the US has been tangible, it has paled in comparison with the epic Chinese buying frenzy in other offshore metropolitan centers like London and Hong Kong. This is understandable: after all as Chuck Prince famously said in 2007, just before the first US mega-bubble burst, “as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.” In China, the music just ended.

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Marketwired to stop selling to high-frequency traders

Marketwired to stop selling to high-frequency traders
3:46am IST
(Adds comments from legal experts and trading firm executive)
By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) – Marketwired, a company that publishes and distributes corporate earnings and other market-moving news releases, said on Wednesday it would no longer sell directly to high-frequency trading companies.

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