China

The possible collapse of property giant China Evergrande shook markets around the world earlier this week, but on Thursday, amid uncertainty over whether it met a critical payment deadline to its lenders, the market rallied, the New York Times reported. Evergrande’s Hong Kong listed shares, which have been on a firm downward trajectory, soared by a head-scratching 18 percent. Hong Kong’s broader Hang Seng Index rallied 1.2 percent.

The bitcoin exchange rate has fallen to its lowest level since early August; following a moderately bullish weekend, the market took a sharp turn downward, Blockchain News reported. The digital currency is responding to the impending bankruptcy of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande and seems to be following regular stock exchanges around the world. The crash wiped out more than $200 billion from the crypto market and has not only affected bitcoin, but all other cryptocurrencies, which seem to be on a downward trend with no real sign of recovery just yet.

China Evergrande Group’s main unit has said it has “resolved” an interest payment due on one of its domestic bonds on Wednesday, offering some relief to jittery markets that had been on edge over fears that a messy default of China’s No. 2 property developer could ripple through China’s economy and the global financial system, Al Jazeera reported.

U.S. stock markets opened higher on Tuesday, rebounding from their worst day in months on Monday as nerves about the Chinese real estate debt crisis eased, Investing.com reported. Better-than-expected data from the housing market also supported the sentiment. Housing starts and building permits for August both came in above expectations, albeit not by enough to cause any acceleration in the Federal Reserve's timeline for running down its asset purchases or raising interest rates. The Fed's latest two-day policy meeting started Tuesday. By 9:45 a.m.

Visitors to Byton Ltd.’s website are greeted with color-saturated images of shiny electric cars gliding along manicured streets. Those paying a visit to the automaker’s factory in Nanjing, eastern China may be less impressed. The plant is modern and huge, gleaming under the hot summer sun. But there’s total silence. Production has been suspended since the pandemic began, and there’s no one around except for a lone security guard, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a similar situation across town at Bordrin Motors.

China’s energy industry is caught between a rock and a hard place, OilPrice.com reported. As the world’s second-largest economy has surged back to life in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, energy demand has skyrocketed, leading to soaring fuel prices and unprecedented decisions out of Beijing to compromise some of the country’s energy security in the interest of keeping the lights on in the immediate term. What’s more, all of this is taking place as the Chinese economy enters a slowdown and inflation rates are on the rise.

Cryptocurrency prices were sliding Monday as China Evergrande Group's bond-payment problems rattled international markers, TheStreet reported. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, fell 7.4% to $43,780 at last check, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum was down 9.4% to $3,034, and Dogecoin sank 11% to 21 cents. Evergrande, China's second-largest property developer, has more than $310 billion in debt. The company has held urgent talks with many of its creditors in hopes of delaying payment on two separate bond obligations due later this week.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s campaign against private enterprise, it is increasingly clear, is far more ambitious than meets the eye, the Wall Street Journal reported. President Jinping is not just trying to rein in a few big tech and other companies and show who is boss in China. He is trying to roll back China’s decades-long evolution toward Western-style capitalism and put the country on a different path entirely, a close examination of his writings and discussions with party officials, as well as interviews with people involved in policy-making, shows.

HNA Group, one of China’s largest global asset buyers spawned from the country’s largest privately owned airline, will be divided into four parts, with each unit operating independently, according to a restructuring blueprint unveiled over the weekend, South China Morning Post reported. The development pushed the share price of its listed unit higher in Hong Kong.

The editor-in-chief of state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times warned debt-ridden property giant Evergrande Group that it should not bet on a government bailout on the assumption that it is "too big to fail," Reuters reported. It was the first commentary to appear in state-backed media casting doubt on a government bailout for the country's No.2 property developer, whose shares fell on Friday for the fifth consecutive day amid concerns it is heading for default.