1. A growing number of Chinese cities are heeding the call to relax property purchase rules to help reignite demand. The cities of Xiamen and Wuhan followed tech and manufacturing hubs Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as four other cities, in allowing homebuyers to avail of lower loan rates for first-time purchases. Initial down payments were also lowered to 20% for first-time buyers and to 30% for second-time buyers - significantly lower than the prevailing 50% or higher down payment often sought by banks. However, two of China’s most important cities - Beijing and Shanghai - have yet to loosen their property purchase rules. Existing homeowners with mortgages can also renegotiate with banks to lower their mortgage rates following repeated rate cuts by the PBoC this year.

Hi, ho, #silver! Can you get a better technical chart than this? $SLV $PSLV $PAAS $WPM $RGLD $HL $iShares Silver Trust(SLV)$ $Sprott Physical Silver Trust(PSLV)$ $Pan American Silver(PAAS)$ $Wheaton Precious Metals(WPM)$ $Royal(RGLD)$ $Hecla Mining(HL)$ Wow. Next stop 35 it seems. We anticipated this situation unfolding early on in @Stansberry Commodity Supercycles. Silver stored in the LBMA continues to decline. There simply aren't enough new major discoveries being made (and not enough new investments) to satisfy demand coming from invest

China's online retail sales in August 2024 slows down to 5.1% growth.YTD August 2024: RMB 9,635.2b +8.9% YoYYTD August 2023: RMB 8,847.7bAugust 2024: RMB 1,256.8b +5.1% YoYAugust 2023: RMB 1,196.2bAugust marked a steady slowdown in growth for China's online economy, which is still growing faster than the overall retail industry.Stripping out online retail sales, traditional retail grew by just 0.7% to RMB 2,615b in August 2024. That is NOT encouraging. $Alibaba(BABA)$ $BABA-W(09988)$ $JD.com(JD)$ $JD-SW(09618)$ $PDD Holdings Inc(PDD)$ $Bilib

1. China’s foreign exchange and gold reserves climbed higher in November. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reported the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased $70.6 billion in November to reach $3.17 trillion. The figure was slightly higher than the $3.14 trillion expected by the market, which points to resilience in the nation’s ability to generate a positive balance of payments despite the economic headwinds and slowing exports. However, slowing imports are also warning of weak domestic consumption, which needs to be addressed with stimulus. Meanwhile, China continues to accumulate gold, with central bank purchases up another 380k ounces in November. The country’s official gold reserves amounted to 71.58 million ounces last month, another record high.

The reporting on Southbound Stock Connect ownership of $Alibaba(BABA)$ $BABA-W(09988)$ is a little funky. As of 9/13 (Friday) the ownership was 141.96m shares.China's markets were closed on 9/16 and 9/17 for the Mid Autumn Festival. So, no Stock Connect trading.But on 9/16 the ownership jumped to 184.05m shares.Then on 9/17, it jumped again to 199.78m shares.How could ownership increase when the Stock Connect was halted due to the holiday?If there's a lag in reporting cross-border purchases, then the first four days of Alibaba's inclusion effectively saw mainland investors scooping up 50m shares, on average, per day.That's equivalent to 46% of the average daily trading volume in Hong Kong for the first f

In 2007 we had too big to fail banks. In 2024 we have too big to fail stocks.10 companies account for 31% of $54 trillion in total US market capitalization.They are $Microsoft(MSFT)$ $Apple(AAPL)$ $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$ $Alphabet(GOOG)$ ( $Alphabet(GOOGL)$ ) $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ $Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.B)$ ( $Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.A)$ ) $Eli Lil

1. China’s inflation came in lower than expected in October, fanning worries of deflation once again. The October consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.2% year-on-year compared with an expected 0.1% decline. That also compared with a slight 0.1% gain in the CPI for September 2023, which points to softening prices across the board. Producer price index (PPI) fell 2.6% year-on-year, a worsening from the 2.5% decline suffered in September, as China’s manufacturing sector struggles with a more challenging global and domestic demand. Shortly after the CPI data came out, news hit the wires of various directors from China’s National Administration of Financial Regulation rushing to meet this afternoon. Beijing is under enormous pressure to stimulate domestic demand.

1. #China’s official manufacturing and non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) came out today with mixed results. The bad news is that the country’s non-manufacturing #PMI (i.e. services sector) declined from 51.5 in July to 51.0 in August. That would indicate a deceleration in expansion in the very important services sector, which had been hoisting economic growth in the face of a slowing property and export market. It was also below the 51.2 figure the market had been expecting. However, the manufacturing PMI for August came in at 49.7, higher than the 49.3 figure the previous month and better than the 49.2 the market was expecting. This suggests that industrial activity is picking up, possibly to do with a return of export orders in preparation for the holiday season. With Bei

I've been bullish on rareearth mining and processing companies for a while. This is just what companies like $MP Materials Corp.(MP)$ and $LYNAS RARE EARTHS LTD(LYC.AU)$.AX need to have a fighting chance against China's stranglehold on the RE market. Still, their capacities are nowhere close what China can - and does - supply to the West. This is a long-term story that everyone needs to pay attention to. US aiming to secure supply chain for rare earth-derived products could cause China to act sooner in playing its RE advantage.https://twitter.com/BrianTycangco/status/1790680587541598667

May deliveries for $NIO Inc.(NIO)$ $NIO Inc.(NIO.SI)$ $NIO-SW(09866)$ $XPeng Inc.(XPEV)$ $XPENG-W(09868)$ $Li Auto(LI)$ $LI AUTO-W(02015)$ $BYD Co., Ltd.(BYDDF)$ $BYD COMPANY(01211)$ expected out tomorrow. Not a good idea to be short some of these names going into the weekend. - EV stocks surge in HK ahead of May deliveries, Nio leads with 10% gainDue to its current status as not yet eligible for southboun