Daily Posts

Alibaba Gains On AI Release, Tariffs Prove Beautifully Bad For Stocks

4 Min. Read Time

Key News

Asian stocks wished they were still on vacation, as US tariffs proved not to be a beautiful thing for stocks as the US dollar surged, Asian equities plunged, except for the Philippines, while Mainland China remains on holiday.

The Hang Seng and Hang Seng Tech indexes opened sharply lower by -2.28% and -3.20%, but managed to close at -0.04% and +0.29%, led by semiconductors and AI winners. Alibaba gained +6.46%, Tencent gained +0.75%, Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) gained +10.26%, and Kingsoft Cloud surged +31.43%. It is surprising that Baidu fell -3.82%, considering its significant efforts in the AI space.

With China hit with tariffs of only 10% compared to 25% for Canada and Mexico, one might speculate that US-China trade talks are occurring though the market reaction seems to be an example of shooting first and asking questions later. The removal of the de minimis exemption was a surprise, which explains the weakness of this morning's pre-US market open in e-commerce.

Hong Kong’s losses were mitigated by a Wall Street Journal report that China’s government will refrain from devaluing the renminbi and take steps to limit the export of fentanyl precursor chemicals.

January electric vehicle (EV) sales were released overnight. BYD gained +0.59% on 300,538 NEVs (hybrid + EV), which is up +49% year-over-year (YoY), though -42% month-over-month (MoM). Geely gained +3.36% on sales of 266,000 versus 213,000 YoY. NIO fell - 2.35% on sales of 13,863 units, which is down -55% MoM and up +38% YoY. Li Auto fell -5.71% on sales of 29,927 units, which is down -48% from December and -3.97% YoY. XPeng fell -0.93% on sales of 30,350 units, which is down -17% MoM and +267% YoY. Xiaomi fell -0.91% on sales of more than 20,000 vehicles while targeting 300,00 in 2025.

It was quiet otherwise with Mainland China still on holiday, though January real estate transaction volume increased +26% YoY, led by first-tier cities.

Movie theaters sold more than RMB 1 billion worth of tickets each of the first five holiday days, led by Nezha: Demon Child in The Sea, which had sales exceeding RMB 3.358B for the holiday. China’s movie ticket sales are expected to exceed the US in 2025

The Hang Seng and Hang Seng Tech indexes diverged to close -0.04% and +0.29%, respectively, on volume that increased +141% from last Tuesday, which is 91% of the 1-year average. 176 stocks advanced while 318 stocks declined. Main Board short turnover increased +164% from last Tuesday, which is 37% of the 1-year average, as 100% of turnover was short turnover (Hong Kong short turnover includes ETF short volume, which is driven by market makers’ ETF hedging). The value factor and large caps outperformed the growth factor and small caps. The top-performing sectors were Consumer Discretionary, which gained +1.03%, Materials, which gained +0.75%, and Communication Services, which gained +0.27%. Meanwhile, the worst-performing sectors were Real Estate, which fell -2.68%, Industrials, which fell -2.17%, and Consumer Staples, which fell -1.22%.  The top-performing subsectors were semiconductors, consumer discretionary distribution, and nonferrous metals. Meanwhile, consumer staples distribution, consumer services, and paper & packaging were among the worst-performing subsectors. Southbound Stock Connect was closed.

Shanghai, Shenzhen and STAR Board were closed.

Last Night's Performance

Country/IndexTicker1-Day Change
China (Hong Kong)HSI Index0%
Hang Seng TechHSTECH Index0.3%
Hong Kong TurnoverHKTurn Index141.9%
HK Short Sale TurnoverHKSST Index164.4%
Short Turnover as a % of HK TurnovrN/A16.6%
Southbound Stock Connect Net Buy/Sell (US $ Millions)N/AClosed
China (Shanghai)SHCOMP IndexClosed
China (Shenzhen)SZCOMP IndexClosed
China (STAR Board)Star50 IndexClosed
Mainland Turnover.chturn IndexClosed
Northbound Stock Connect Net Buy/Sell (US $ Millions)N/ANot Available
Jing Daily China Global Luxury IndexCHINALUX Index-1.2%
JapanNKY Index-2.7%
IndiaSENSEX Index-0.4%
IndonesiaJCI Index-1.1%
MalaysiaFBMKLCI Index-0.2%
PakistanKSE100 Index-1.2%
PhilippinesPCOMP Index0.3%
South KoreaKOSPI Index-2.5%
TaiwanTWSE Index-3.5%
ThailandSET Index-0.8%
SingaporeSTI Index-0.8%
AustraliaAS51 Index-1.8%
MSCI China All Shares Index# of StocksAverage 1-Day Change (%)
Hong Kong Listed1520.08
Communication Services90.27
Consumer Discretionary301.03
Consumer Staples13-1.21
Energy7-0.7
Financials23-0.73
Health Care13-0.78
Industrials19-2.16
Information Technology100.11
Materials100.75
Real Estate6-2.68
Utilities12-0.69
Mainland China Listed432Closed
Communication Services9Closed
Consumer Discretionary31Closed
Consumer Staples27Closed
Energy16Closed
Financials63Closed
Health Care40Closed
Industrials69Closed
Information Technology85Closed
Materials68Closed
Real Estate7Closed
Utilities17Closed
US & Hong Kong Dually ListedTicker1-Day Change (%)
Tencent HK700 HK Equity0.7
Alibaba HK9988 HK Equity6.5
JD.com HK9618 HK Equity-3.2
NetEase HK9999 HK Equity-0.3
Yum China HK9987 HK Equity0.1
Baozun HK9991 HK Equity3
Baidu HK9888 HK Equity-3.8
Autohome HK2518 HK Equity-1
Bilibili HK9626 HK Equity-5.4
Trip.com HK9961 HK Equity0.8
EDU HK9901 HK Equity-1.2
Xpeng HK9868 HK Equity-0.9
Weibo HK9898 HK Equity-1.6
Li Auto HK2015 HK Equity-5.7
Nio Auto HK9866 HK Equity-2.3
Zhihu HK2390 HK Equity-4.8
KE HK2423 HK Equity-1.3
Tencent Music Entertainment HK1698 HK Equity2.1
Meituan HK3690 HK Equity-4
Hong Kong's Most Heavily Traded by Value 1-Day Change (%)
ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD6.5
TENCENT HOLDINGS LTD0.7
MEITUAN-CLASS B-4
XIAOMI CORP-CLASS B-0.9
SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING10.3
AIA GROUP LTD-1.5
JD.COM INC-CLASS A-3.2
HONG KONG EXCHANGES & CLEAR-0.1
PING AN INSURANCE GROUP CO-H-1.3
HSBC HOLDINGS PLC-0.1

Last Night's Exchange Rates, Prices, & Yields

Mainland China's currency, fixed income, and commodity markets were closed overnight.