China Business Digest: White House Says No Sino-U.S. Trade Talks Scheduled; Apple Hits $2 Trillion Market Cap

The White House chief of staff said Tuesday that there are no new Sino-U.S. trade talks scheduled. Apple became the first U.S. company to top $2 trillion market cap, and a record number of new investors flooded into China’s stock market. Meanwhile, flights between the U.S. and China could double to 16 round trips a week, and Taiwan will ban mainland-based online streaming platforms starting next month.

— By Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)

** TOP STORIES OF THE DAY

Apple hits market cap of $2 trillion

The iPhone maker became the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach $2 trillion in market cap as its share price climbed above $467.77 Wednesday morning. Apple’s valuation doubled in just over two years. It first reached $1 trillion in market cap Aug. 2, 2018.

China’s stock market posts record rise of new investors in July

More than 2.4 million new investors opened stock trading accounts in China in July, more than double the figure of the previous month. It also marked the highest monthly increase in new stock investors since July 2015, when the A-share market was hit by a massive selloff.

No new U.S.-China trade talks scheduled, says White House chief of staff

No new high-level trade talks between Washington and Beijing are scheduled but the two sides are in contact about the implementation of the phase-one trade deal, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. This came after U.S. President Donald Trump said he has postponed an Aug. 15 review of the trade deal.

U.S. warns colleges to divest China stocks on delisting risk

The U.S. State Department is asking colleges and universities to divest from Chinese holdings in their endowments, warning schools in a letter Tuesday to get ahead of potentially more onerous measures on holding the shares.

Flights could double between China and U.S.

China and the United States will allow each other’s carriers to double their current flights, bringing the total number of weekly roundtrips between the pair to 16, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Tuesday.

China ramps up U.S. oil purchases before trade deal review

Some 14 million barrels of U.S. oil will be loaded next month for delivery to China as the world’s biggest oil importer ramped up purchases of American crude ahead of a review of the trade deal between the two economic superpowers. Those shipments would more than double the volumes set for August.

Online streaming platforms from mainland to be banned in Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Wednesday that it will ban online streaming platforms from the Chinese mainland, saying it hasn't opened the local video streaming market to mainland-invested companies.

China Railway sparks investor ire over attempt to shut down fund

China State Railway Group Co. Ltd., operator of the world’s largest high-speed railway network, has stirred up a row with some shareholders of its development fund over the group’s plan to liquidate the entity nine years early to avoid paying costly dividends as bond yields slump and profits collapse.

** OTHER STORIES MAKING THE HEADLINES

Finance & Economy

• China’s top economic planner directed six state-owned or state-controlled banks to provide credit support to urbanization projects in county-level governments, a move in line with Premier Li Keqiang’s call for putting money directly into the hands of struggling local authorities.

• Hong Kong’s strongest typhoon of the year moved away from the city after prompting the cancellation of morning trading in the city’s $5.8 trillion local stock market, shutting down many businesses and disrupting public transportation, Bloomberg reported. Business and stock trading will resume in the afternoon, according to exchange rules.

Business & Tech

• Despite President Trump’s executive order banning the short-video platform from Sept. 15 unless it is sold to a local company, TikTok has announced a partnership with American music distributor UnitedMasters which will allow its video creators to distribute their songs via other streaming platforms.

• Online English learning platform Palfish, also known as Banyu in China, has raised $120 million, marking the largest fundraising in the online English learning segment this year, the company said Monday.

• The interim earnings report of China Telecom, one of the country’s big three telecom companies, showed roughly flat financial performance in the first half of the year, with profit growing just 0.3% despite a sizable increase in its mobile subscribers.

• A subsidiary of power generator GD Power Development Co. Ltd., which is in turn owned by major power company China Guodian Corp., was declared bankrupt (link in Chinese) by a court in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region on Tuesday. This is the second GD Power subsidiary to go bust since May.

• China’s busiest coal railway, the Daqin railway, has suspended operation (link in Chinese) after a freight train derailed along its Beijing section on Monday, Caixin has learned. Its operator, Shanghai-listed Daqin Railway Co. Ltd., hasn’t made an official statement on the matter.

• Analysts at investment firm Wedbush Securities Inc. predicted that the China sales of Tesla Inc. would reach 150,000 vehicles by year-end (link in Chinese). The company has been the best-selling electric car brand in the market this year with over 57,000 cars sold in the first seven months of 2020.

** ON THE CORONAVIRUS

• On Wednesday, the Chinese mainland reported (link in Chinese) 17 new coronavirus infections for Tuesday, down from 22 for a day earlier. All the new cases were imported, with eight of those arriving in Shanghai and four in Guangdong province.

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Caixin’s coverage of the new coronavirus

• As of Wednesday afternoon Beijing time, the number of global Covid-19 cases has surpassed 22.1 million, with the death toll topping 781,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

** AND FINALLY

A 1,000-year-old giant Buddha sculpture in Southwest China’s Sichuan province had its feet submerged for the first time in decades due to unprecedented flooding.

** LOOKING AHEAD

Release of second-quarter financial results:

Aug. 20: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Aug. 21: Meituan Dianping and Pinduoduo Inc.

Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)

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