China's Bull Market Suddenly in Peril
(Bloomberg) -- A pair of President Donald Trump's tweets rocked Chinese stocks and currency on Monday, but for most of the nation's media outlets, nothing happened at all.
More than 14 hours after Trump's threat to raise tariffs on Chinese goods up-ended global markets, few Chinese news outlets have reported them. From the official Xinhua News Agency to the more market-oriented Caixin and the typically belligerent Global Times, there was little information on what sent the nation's stocks to their biggest loss since 2016 and caused the sharpest yuan weakening in three years.
Posts and stories about Trump's twin pronouncements were deleted from Weibo, according to Weiboscope, a project backed by the University of Hong Kong that tallies deleted posts and censored words on the Twitter-like service. And several users reported that attempts to post screenshots of the American leader's tweets to Tencent's WeChat were blocked.
Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on the nation's media operators, from Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s ubiquitous WeChat to Weibo Corp. Trump's declaration may have caught Beijing by surprise, particularly as sensitive trade negotiations reach a critical juncture. Bloomberg reported earlier that top leaders are considering delaying Premier Liu He's trip to Washington this week. Chinese officials said Monday a delegation would still travel to the U.S., but declined to say whether He would join them. Representatives for Weibo and Tencent didn't respond to requests for comment.
On Chinese search engine Baidu, the top news about the American president earlier Monday pertained either to his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin or a subsequent tweet about the Mueller report. The news blackout left some investors scrambling to make sense of the market turmoil: traders asked openly why stocks were tumbling on several WeChat groups dedicated to investment ideas.
Still, savvier social media users have always found a way to convey the news. Many likened Trump to Thanos -- the intergalactic villain in the Avengers series -- as the U.S. President wiped out Chinese stocks with a snap of his fingers.
Read more: With Two Tweets, Trump Shatters Historic Calm in Global Markets
--With assistance from Lulu Yilun Chen, Gao Yuan and Alfred Cang.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xiaoqing Pi in Beijing at xpi1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Bloomberg
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
