3 hours ago
Evergrande shares plunge more than 20% after asset management employees were arrested
Shares in struggling Chinese real estate developer Evergrande plunged as much as 22.6% on Monday after police arrested some employees of the group’s asset management division over the weekend.
Portal reported that police in the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement that “public security organs had taken criminal enforcement action against Du and other suspected criminals at Evergrande Financial Wealth Management Co.”
It is not clear who Du is, although Portal said he was identified by employees in 2021 as the general manager and legal representative of Evergrande’s asset management division.
Evergrande shares rebounded later in the session, gaining 1.61% compared to Friday’s close.
6 hours ago
SoftBank Expects OpenAI to Settle After Arm IPO: FT
Japanese investment holding SoftBank is reportedly planning to invest “tens of billions” in artificial intelligence, according to the Financial Times.
Citing “two familiar people [SoftBank founder Masayoshi] Son’s Thinking,” the FT reported that the company was considering several options, including investing in or entering into a “broad strategic partnership” with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
SoftBank could also invest in competitors, the report added. FT also said SoftBank had made a preliminary approach to buying UK-based AI chip maker Graphcore.
SoftBank told the FT it would not comment on the rumors, and Graphcore denied to the FT that it had received an offer from SoftBank.
—Lim Hui Jie
6 hours ago
Singapore trade falls more than expected in August; The eleventh consecutive month of decline
Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports fell for the 11th straight month, falling 20.1% year-on-year.
The decline was much larger than the 15.8% drop forecast by economists polled by Portal, but slightly smaller than the 20.3% decline recorded in July.
Total trade in Singapore fell 15.2% year-on-year to 100 billion Singapore dollars ($73.4 billion) in August, after falling 20.9% in the previous month.
Both imports and exports fell by 15.6% and 14.7% year-on-year, respectively.
—Lim Hui Jie
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: China’s AI applications are coming – where it matters for monetization
China’s market advantage is a huge user base coupled with the ability to increase internet penetration to support an online ecosystem – from Taobao e-commerce sales to scan-to-ride bike shares.
“Early movers in the [large language model] “The market has already begun the commercialization process, and regulatory approval to open more than 10 LLMs to the public has further removed barriers to monetization,” Nomura analysts said in a Sept. 10 note, citing meetings with companies and industry experts in Beijing in the few days before.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Bank of America names two European chip stocks as its year-end “top picks.”
Bank of America has named two European chip stocks as its “top picks” for the end of the year.
The Wall Street bank’s “top auto semi-pick” is expected to rise more than 60% over the next 12 months.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
– Ganesh Rao
Fri, September 15, 2023, 10:09 a.m. EDT
The inflation outlook falls to its lowest level since the beginning of 2021, according to the survey
The one-year inflation outlook fell to its lowest level in more than two and a half years, according to a widely followed sentiment indicator released on Friday.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey showed one-year inflation expectations fell to 3.1% in September, the lowest level since January 2021. The five-year outlook also fell to 2.7%, the lowest since December 2020.
However, the overall sentiment indicator fell to 67.7 from 69.5 in August, below the Dow Jones estimate of 69.2.
–Jeff Cox
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Nvidia or Arm? Dan Niles reveals which one he would “much rather” own
Fri, September 15, 2023, 11:44 a.m. EDT
Arm shares rose slightly on Friday following the blockbuster stock market rally
Shares of Arm Holdings rose 0.8% during midday trading on Friday, rebounding slightly from their previous rally. The stock rose nearly 25% during Thursday’s trading session as the company made its blockbuster Nasdaq debut through an initial public offering that priced shares at $51 each and valued the company at about $54.5 billion -dollars had.
Some analysts are concerned about Arm’s valuation.
Needham had previously initiated coverage on UK semiconductor stocks with a hold rating, but said the company’s valuation could look “full” in a post-smartphone era. Quilter Cheviot previously told CNBC that “prices are high.”
Investors are focused on some of the risks associated with the company, including its exposure to China and increasing competition from a rival semiconductor architecture called RISC-V, which is backed by some of Arm’s largest customers. Arm’s chip architecture is found in 99% of smartphones worldwide.
—Pia Singh
Fri, September 15, 2023, 12:50 p.m. EDT
The dollar index is on track for its longest weekly winning streak since 2014
The dollar index is heading for its ninth consecutive weekly rise for the first time since October 3, 2014. At that time, the dollar index was on a 12-week winning streak, the longest winning streak ever.
Since the beginning of the week, the dollar index has risen 0.16%.
— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla
Fri, September 15, 2023, 2:40 p.m. EDT
Netflix and chip equipment stocks are among the biggest weekly Nasdaq losers
The Nasdaq Composite erased earlier weekly gains on Friday, putting the tech-heavy index on track for a weekly loss of 0.5%. A loss of 0.6% is expected for the concentrated Nasdaq-100.
Among the biggest laggards are chip equipment stocks KLA Corporation, Lam Research and Applied Materials, each down at least 7%. Adobe lost more than 6%, while On Semiconductor fell 5.4%. Netflix is the biggest loser on the Nasdaq-100, heading for a weekly loss of 10.6%.
Despite the downtrend, some stocks are primed for weekly gains. These include Charter Communications, PayPal and Qualcomm, each up more than 6%. Tesla is the biggest gainer, up 9.2%, followed by Moderna.
—Samantha Subin