Chinese Stocks Slide After Latest Stimulus Disappoints

21 minutes ago

China-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks of Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges fell Friday, after Beiing’s latest stimulus package aimed at boosting the country’s sluggish economy disappointed investors.

China Friday reportedly announced a five-year package totaling 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) to tackle mounting debt levels at its local governments. Beijing has approved a plan to allow local governments to sell bonds to swap out their debt, The Wall Street Journal reported, but stopped short of broader fiscal support. The report said investors had been eagerly anticipating a bigger stimulus by Beijing after Donald Trump, who has said he would impose higher tariffs on Chinese imports, was elected U.S. president this week.

“This is not the stimulus that markets were looking for at all,” Shehzad Qazi, managing director at the China Beige Book, a U.S.-based research firm, said in an interview on CNBC. “This is not stimulus to begin with. What they’re doing is recycling debt. I don't think this does anything to stimulate growth.”

The iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI) and the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI) both fell around 6% Friday.

U.S. traded shares of Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), online marketplace JD.com (JD), Temu parent PDD Holdings (PDD) and EV makers Nio (NIO) and Li Auto (LI) all dropped between 5% and 8%.

–Nisha Gopalan

Pinterest Slides as Q3 Profit Misses Expectations

1 hour ago

Pinterest (PINS) shares slumped Friday morning after the social media company’s third-quarter net income fell short of estimates despite a narrow revenue beat.

The company reported $898.37 million in revenue, 18% above last year’s third-quarter revenue, Pinterest reported $30.56 million in net income, up from the same time last year but below the $49.43 million analysts had projected.

For the fourth quarter, Pinterest projects revenue between $1.125 billion and $1.145 billion, just below the analyst consensus of $1.148 billion heading into Thursday’s earnings.

JPMorgan analysts said after the earnings release that the projected revenue weakness is due to "pressure" facing advertising from the food and beverage industry, which has remained lower over the last several quarters. The analysts, lowering their price target to $35 from $38, said they expect Pinterest's AI-powered advertising features will take several quarters to grow and become widely used by the platform's advertising partners.

Pinterest shares were down 16% at $28.50 in recent trading and have now lost 23% since the start of the year.

–Aaron McDade

Nvidia Replaces Intel in the Dow Friday

2 hr 45 min ago

Nvidia (NVDA) joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday, replacing storied chipmaker Intel (INTC) as the artificial intelligence (AI) darling cements its position as the world’s most valuable company.

The change took effect prior to the start of trading, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the blue-chip index, in an announcement at the start of the month.

Nvidia shares have risen nearly three-fold since the start of the year, driven by insatiable demand for the company’s family of AI chips— including its next generation Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs). The AI boom has helped the chip designer to leapfrog Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) to become the most valuable publicly listed company in the world.

In contrast, Intel shares are down almost 50% this year, as it struggles with a costly turnaround under CEO Pat Gelsinger. 

Paint maker Sherwin-Williams (SHW) also became a member of the blue-chip index Friday, supplanting chemical giant Dow (DOW). 

–Nisha Gopalan

Bitcoin Near Record Highs—Key Levels to Watch

3 hr 45 min ago

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was down slightly Friday after surging to a record high near $77,000 yesterday amid optimism about how the cryptocurrency might benefit from a Donald Trump’s presidency.

Investors view a future Trump Administration as a positive development for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency more broadly, specifically in relation to regulation and the potential for the creation of a federal strategic bitcoin reserve, two areas the president-elect addressed when delivering a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July.

The Trump-fueled momentum comes at a welcome time for the legacy cryptocurrency, which has traded mostly sideways over the past seven months as exuberance subsided following the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January and the asset’s halving event in April. Since the start of the year, Bitcoin has gained around 80%, adding the lion’s share of those gains in the first quarter.

Bitcoin has broken out above the upper trendline of a cup and handle pattern, potentially marking the start of a near-term move higher.

A measured move, which calculates the depth of the “cup” portion of the pattern and adds that amount to the formation’s top trendline, projects a price target of $126,000. Investors should watch key support levels on Bitcoin's chart around $70,000 and $53,000.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Major Index Stock Futures Mixed

4 hr 20 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures were down fractionally.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.2%.

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