With President Obama scheduled to make his first presidential trip to Beijing this weekend, China Region Fund (USCOX) co-manager Romeo Dator appeared on CNBCrsquo;s ldquo;Power Lunchrdquo; today to discuss the U.S.-China relationship. The other guest in the segment was former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, who stressed that the U.S. relationship isnrsquo;t the only one thatrsquo;s important to China. [Obama] wonrsquo;t be able to give them a public lecture. Hersquo;s going to find a more assertive, a more confident China. The only thing playing in our favor this time is that the whole of Asia is up in arms about the dollar. Since the Chinese peg their currency to the dollar, itrsquo;s giving them a benefit versus the rest of Asia. The only real chance we have here is for Asia to convince China (to let the yuan appreciate). Romeo predicted that Asia on the whole will grow in importance for investors. I think ...

 

A new ETF giving access to Chinese A shares is to be launched in Singapore next month.

The United FTSE Xinhua China A50 ETF, to be offered by the asset management subsidiary of United Overseas Bank (UOB), will be the first China A-shares fund to be denominated and traded in Singapore dollars.

Chinese A shares are denominated and traded in Chinese yuan and listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges. Historically, access to the A-shares market in China has been limited to Chinese nationals and qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The FTSE Xinhua China A50 Index is designed to measure the performance of the 50 largest China A-shares companies, based on market capitalization.

ETFs tracking A shares are already dominant in the Asian market. The Hong Kong-listed iShares Asia Trust, which also tracks the FTSE Xinhua A50 Index, is the largest Asian ETF, with $6.7

...

John Derrick, our director of research, put this together for last weekrsquo;s Investor Alert. After nearly doubling in the first seven months of the year, the domestic Chinese stock market fell more than 20 percent in August. China had led the world out of recession, its aggressive stimulus and other government programs helping to stabilize its domestic economy. With the August stock market drop, the conventional thinking was that the market had gotten ahead of itself and the Chinese economy was setting itself up for a significant slowdown. nbsp; Such pessimism overlooks many fundamental positives in China, particularly on the consumer sentiment side so important for sustaining a recovery. In Augustrsquo;s monthly survey by researchers at CLSA, for example, 91 percent of respondents said they believe business conditions in China will be the same or better in six monthsrsquo; time. Compare that to 42 percent of respondents in December 2008. Itrsquo;s worth pointing out that ...

John Derrick, our director of research, put this together for last weekrsquo;s Investor Alert. After nearly doubling in the first seven months of the year, the domestic Chinese stock market fell more than 20 percent in August. China had led the world out of recession, its aggressive stimulus and other government programs helping to stabilize its domestic economy. With the August stock market drop, the conventional thinking was that the market had gotten ahead of itself and the Chinese economy was setting itself up for a significant slowdown. nbsp; Such pessimism overlooks many fundamental positives in China, particularly on the consumer sentiment side so important for sustaining a recovery. In Augustrsquo;s monthly survey by researchers at CLSA, for example, 91 percent of respondents said they believe business conditions in China will be the same or better in six monthsrsquo; time. Compare that to 42 percent of respondents in December 2008. Itrsquo;s worth pointing out that ...

To shore up its balance sheet, China Eastern (CEA) announced the sale of up to RMB1.35 billion new A shares and 490 million new Hong Kong dollar-denominated H shares to parent, China Eastern Air Holding Co.

We continue to believe the fundamental outlook for airline carriers remains weak and a CEA/SAL tie-up will not change this. Both CEA and SAL shares are subject to special treatment, meaning that daily share price movements are limited to 5% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Moreover, the shares could be delisted should CEA and SAL continue to sustain losses in 2009. We reiterate our Underperform recommendation on China Eastern shares.Zacks Investment Research

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 1, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights CNOOC, Ltd. (CEO) as the Bull of the Day and China Eastern Airlines (CEA) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS) and American Express Company (AXP).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

With favorable prospects for the resumption of China's economic growth and commodity prices off of their lows, CNOOC, Ltd. (CEO) ADSs are expected to maintain their recent impressive performance momentum.

This, coupled with the company's positive production-growth profile, exclusivity in the offshore China region and lucrative LNG investments, account for continued favorable view.

The company's low cost operating model is also a competitive advantage. With

...

Trading in shares of China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (CEA) and Shanghai Airlines Co., Ltd. (or SAL) have been suspended beginning on June 8, reportedly concerning a merger between the two.Details are slim. Speculation includes three possible alternatives: (1) SAL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of CEA that is operated independently; (2) SAL's operations will be completely merged with CEA with the SAL brand ended; or (3) CEA will take a controlling interest in SAL.The first two would be accomplished via a share exchange in which the shares of SAL would be delisted, while under the third option SAL would continue as a listed stock. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 to assure China Eastern's service to the Shanghai World Expo to be held in 2010. Any hook-up between the two would be positive for ...

Yesterday, China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (CEA) announced a 2008 full-year net loss of RMB15.3 billion (down from earnings of RMB269 million a year ago), including RMB6.3 billion on oil fuel hedging losses and RMB3.0 billion in impairment losses, from write-downs of acquisition goodwill and older, less fuel-efficient aircraft.

Revenues slumped 3% to RMB41.7 billion on weaker demand as CEA reported a 5.9% decline in passenger traffic and a 280 basis-point decrease in the passenger load factor, while fuel costs jumped 22%.

To prop up its balance sheet, CEA sold 2.9 billion A and H shares, raising close to RMB7 billion, received a RMB5.5 billion working capital loan from its parent, and obtained RMB36 billion in additional bank credit lines.

Because CEA reported negative equity at the end of 2008, it is subject to special treatment, meaning that daily share price movements are limited to 5% on the

...

Deutsche Bank, already a major player in European exchange-traded securities, owns a 19% share in Harvest.

 

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is in discussions with Harvest Fund Management Co., one of China's biggest asset managers, about the establishment of an exchange-traded fund based on the Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 Index.

The move, first reported on the Chinese investor Web site, cnstock.com, provides a glimpse of an interesting battle taking shape between the two big Chinese stock exchanges as ETFs become higher profile among Chinese investors.

The Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 Index is a composite index of the biggest stocks on both the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In August, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and AIG-Huatai Fund Management Co. filed an ETF application with the China Securities Regulatory Commission for a similar ETF. Because the index itself is split between listings on the rival exchanges, the ETF application included a twist.

The application

...

ETF trading, turnover up in Europe and Asia, says Deutsche Bank.

Even before the U.S. government's plan to rescue the financial system failed to find support in Congress, exchange-traded funds in Europe were showing signs of heavier trading by investors during the rocky markets.

ETF turnover in European stock ETFs rose by 29.3% last week on average daily turnover  of $1.24 billion, according to the latest figures from Deutsche Bank.

Turnover in an Asian equity ETF also reached a record last week. On the Shanghai Stock Exchange, turnover in the SSE 50 ETF reached a new high of 57.55% through the first four days of last week. There were 577 million orders for the SSE 50 ETF last week, including 400 million redemption orders and net 177 million orders for new subscriptions, the ninth  consecutive week during which the ETF saw net new subscriptions.

In the much smaller European fixed income ETF market, turnover rose by 37.5% to $168 million.

...