China

Commodity investors looking to China to reverse the severe rout in global metals markets may be disappointed, with Beijing unable to deliver the kind of investment splurge that powered past bull markets, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities are mulling a plan to let local governments sell 1.5 trillion yuan ($220 billion) of special bonds in the second half. This potential boost for infrastructure spending helped commodities pare some of their steep losses in recent weeks.

China Evergrande Group is reaching out to its offshore creditors for their support to fight a lawsuit in a Hong Kong court aimed at liquidating the embattled property developer, Reuters reported. Evergrande, which is deemed to be in default on its nearly $23 billion of offshore debt and is working on a debt restructuring plan, aims to submit the backing of creditors as part of the evidence to the court ahead of the first hearing on the winding-up petition on Aug. 31.

China's economy has recovered to some extent, but its foundation is not solid, state media on Tuesday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying, Reuters reported. China will strive to drive the economy back onto a normal track and bring down the jobless rate as soon as possible, Li was quoted as saying. "Currently, the implementation of the policy package to stabilise the economy is accelerating and taking effect. The economy has recovered on the whole, but the foundation is not yet solid," Li was quoted as saying.

Investment holding firm Top Shine Global Ltd has decided to file a winding-up petition against China Evergrande Group as the embattled property developer did not repurchase shares in its unit Fangchebao from investors, a senior executive said, Reuters reported. Top Shine filed the petition on Friday, a record at the Hong Kong High Court showed. Fangchebao is a Chinese online real estate and automobile marketplace owned by Evergrande. The unit was planning an IPO in Hong Kong.

China’s economy showed some improvement in June as Covid restrictions were gradually eased, although the recovery remains muted, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the outlook based on Bloomberg’s aggregate index of eight early indicators for this month. The overall gauge returned to the neutral level after deteriorating for two straight months. Economic activity picked up in June after financial hub Shanghai lifted its lockdown, allowing businesses to restart and most residents to leave their homes.

China's central bank made the biggest daily cash injection into the banking system via open market operations in nearly three months on Monday, to ease pressure from rising cash demand towards the end of the first half of the year, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) injected 100 billion yuan ($14.95 billion) worth of seven-day reverse repos, the biggest daily injection via the liquidity tool since March 31. The central bank said the operation was to keep "half year-end liquidity stable," according to an online statement.

Profits at China's industrial firms shrank at a slower pace in May following a big slump in April, due to the resumption of activity in major manufacturing hubs, but COVID-19 curbs still weighed on factory production and squeezed factory margins, Reuters reported. Profits fell 6.5% from a year earlier, less than the 8.5% decline in April, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

China’s property sector started to crumble under the weight of its huge debts. What was already shaping up to be the country’s worst housing market in years suffered another blow when a new variant of the coronavirus triggered widespread lockdowns and brought the economy to a standstill, the New York Times reported.

In China, an army of college students is set to enter the toughest job market in years, as Covid-19 takes the wind out of the broader economy and Beijing’s regulatory campaigns devastate industries long attractive to the country’s young people, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wang Shusheng, a student at a university in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou who is set to collect his diploma next week, said he has sent his résumé to more than 250 companies in the past few weeks, including some that he submitted at 2 a.m. during bouts of anxiety.

A judge declined to end exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui’s personal bankruptcy, siding with the Justice Department and some of his creditors who asked that a neutral party be brought in to take charge of his finances, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Julie Manning of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bridgeport, Conn., yesterday ordered that an independent trustee be appointed to take over Mr. Guo’s chapter 11 case and work with his creditors on a plan to pay his debts and potentially resolve civil lawsuits against him. The ruling is a blow to Mr.