Alibaba, Nio Fall: Hong Kong Stocks Weaken As US Midterm Results Eyed

KEY POINTS

• Shares of Nio and Meituan dropped over 3% in morning trade, while Alibaba shares lost over 1%.
• New coronavirus cases rose in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities.
• China’s producer prices dropped into deflation for the first time in close to two years.

Hong Kong stocks opened in the red on Wednesday, with the benchmark Hang Seng losing over 1%, as investors and traders await the results of the U.S. midterm elections and China’s producer prices dropped into deflation for the first time in about two years.

Shares of Nio and Meituan dropped over 4%, while Alibaba shares lost near 2%.

Macro News: New coronavirus cases rose in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities while nationwide, new locally transmitted infections climbed to 7,475 on Nov. 7,reportedReuters.

China’s producer prices dropped into deflation for the first time in close to two years with the producer price index falling 1.3% in October,  reported Bloomberg.

China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors expanded the program launched in 2018 to support close to 250 billion yuan ($34.5 billion) in debt sales by private companies including developers, reported Bloomberg.

Company News: Shares in Goertek Inc plunged on Wednesday after the supplier of firms like Apple Inc and Meta Platforms Incstated an overseas client had demanded to suspend assembly work for a smart acoustic product, reported Reuters.

Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co has named its premium car brand Yangwang, reported CnEVPost.

Top Gainers and Losers: Country Garden Services Holdings Company Limited and Longfor Group Holdings Limited are the top gainers among Hang Seng constituents, having risen over 16% and 13%, respectively. Meituan and WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc.are the top losers, having shed over 4%.

Global News: U.S. futures traded mixed on Wednesday morning Asia session. The Dow Jones futures were down 0.05% while the Nasdaq futures gained 0.18%. The S&P 500 futures were trading higher by 0.05%.

Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s ASX 200 was up 0.69%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.31% lower while China’s Shanghai Composite index traded 0.09% lower. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.24%.