Hong Kong stocks rise in mixed Asia-Pacific session, Softbank shares fall 14%

Foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia will not return to pre-Covid levels until 2025, according to the country’s tourism ministry.

Sandiaga Uno, the country’s tourism and creative economy minister, said foreign tourist arrivals are currently at 25% of pre-pandemic levels.

The government also aims to create 4.4 million new jobs in the tourism industry by 2024, with 1.1 million “new and better jobs” already added this year, Uno said.

— Charmaine Jacob

Observers do not expect much progress from the bilateral summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Economist Impact, the policy and insight arm of The Economist Group.

“Expectations aren’t very high,” Economist Impact Asia-Pacific director Andrew Staples told CNBC’s Martin Soong, pointing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a focal point of simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing. .

“China has been unfortunately… somewhat ambivalent about [the war in Ukraine] when it comes to President Putin,” he said, adding that China’s stance “harms the global economy.”

“The global business community is very concerned that this geopolitical tension is having a negative impact.”

—Jihye Lee

The US-China relationship is the “most important bilateral relationship in the world”, and it is fraught with tension – but Washington can change that, according to Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University.

“I think the United States should start by saying that we want to have normal relations. We are not trying to shut down the Chinese economy,” he said.

His comments come hours before a face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia, where the G-20 summit is due to take place.

“It’s been too many soundbites in every direction and a lot of tension and, in my opinion, too much American unilateralism, rather than bilateral negotiation and diplomacy,” he added.

“The United States and China should ease up, stop this friction, stop this Cold War for the benefit of both economies and the rest of the world,” Sachs said.

—Abigail from

Ali BabaCainiao’s logistics arm has announced the opening of its Latin American headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The company said low-cost drones and Bluetooth headphones are among the most popular products with local customers.

The expansion comes as retail growth in China has slowed – Alibaba for the first time did not release total sales for its flagship Singles Day shopping festival which ended on Friday.

Cainiao’s expansion comes after Alibaba’s international e-commerce platform AliExpress told CNBC it had spent millions of dollars to reach the South Korean market.

— Evelyn Cheng

Swiss bank UBS has predicted “strong” disinflation in 2023.

He said weak growth coupled with ‘mechanical’ indicators, such as easing supply chain bottlenecks and rising commodity inventories, would lead to lower prices next year. .

The investment bank selected stocks that would benefit from such an environment.

CNBC Pro subscribers can learn more about their predictions and eight stocks we’ve highlighted in their list.

—Ganesh Rao

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Chinese property developers surged following a local media report that a number of additional measures will be introduced to support the property market recovery.

Cifi Holdings increased by 29.84%, country garden jumped 32%, Logan Group increased by 38%, and Longfor Group jumped 22% early in the session, supporting the broader index.

The report says there would be financial support for real estate transactions and projects, including loan extensions to developers.

These measures “could generate notable market reactions without dramatically altering current economic fundamentals,” Goldman Sachs economists said of the report in a Monday note.

—Jihye Lee

Shares of the tech giant SoftBank Group plunged nearly 12% in morning session in Japan after Vision Fund, the company’s technology investment vehicle, reported a loss of 1.38 trillion yen ($9.88 billion) for the quarter ending September 30.

“The stock prices of many public holding companies have fallen amid weakness in global equity markets, and the fair value of a wide range of private holding companies has also declined,” SoftBank said in its latest financial report. .

SoftBank reported net profit of 3.03 trillion yen after two quarters of losses.

—Abigail from

This year’s bear market wiped out trillions of dollars of market capitalization from the stock market, but a few stocks outperformed significantly during this period.

Bank of America identified three retail stocks that bucked the trend, and said one remains a buy.

Pro subscribers can learn more here.

— Zavier Ong

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong closed its session last Friday up 7.7%, having its best day since March 16, when the index rose 9.08%.

On a weekly basis, the index rose 7.2% as China eased Covid measures, after posting an 8.73% gain the previous week on rumors of China’s reopening plans.

The index is up almost 18% since the start of the month and could post its best monthly performance since April 1999, when the Hang Seng index gained 21.85%.

— Gina Francolla, Jihye Lee