International

China’s Financial Regulator Ordered Ant Group’s Alipay to Uncover its Lending Business and Disclose Borrowers

Official Beijing plans to break up Ant Group’s Alipay and create a separate application for the fintech giant’s loans business.

The plan will also result in Ant turning over the user data involving lending decisions to a new credit scoring joint-venture that will be partly state-owned. Celestial Empire’s regulators previously ordered Ant to split the businesses of AliPay from lending businesses Huabei and Jiebei. Now they want to move ahead and split the entire credit businesses into an independent stringently controlled application.

According to CNBC, Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba, Ant Group’s e-commerce host company, fell more than 4% Monday afternoon following a relevant FT report. The decline weighed on the broader Chinese tech sector as the Hang Seng Tech index declined almost 3%, with shares of other Chinese tech heavyweights like Tencent experiencing a huge pressure.

The latest development marked yet another sign of China’s increasing its grip over several digital industries in general, and trouble for Ant’s business after its failed attempt to go public late last year – in particular.

U.S. Economy

Federal Reserve Avoided Shock to Equities by Refraining from Naming Day-X for Tapering of Asset Purchases

As expected from its decision yesterday, members pulled forward rate-hike expectations on the dot plot.

U.S. Economy

Inflation is Ubiquitous and Protracted But Different for Poor and Wealthy

Classic inflation measures like the Consumer Price Index, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are built based on so-called "consumption baskets," in which periodicities are underpinned by relevant annual surveys asking people about their shopping preferences and difficulties. This past summer, bankers and business leaders seemed to be increasingly worried about big and bold unstoppable price inflation nearly halving everyone’s pockets’ contents.

Investing Ideas

Uranium: Following Suite of Commodities Growth

The price of raw uranium, known as yellowcake, has risen to its highest level since 2014, driven by a newly launched investment trust run by Canadian asset management company Sprott.