Finance

China retail sales strengthen at start of 2025, industrial data beats

Published

8 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Business Finance News

Pictured here is a Shanghai development under construction on Nov. 4, 2024.

Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

China’s economy showed a modest pickup for the first two months of the year, according to data published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics, as Beijing reiterated its plan to bolster domestic consumption.

Retail sales rose by 4.0% in the January-February period from a year ago, compared with the 3.7% year-on-year growth in December and in line with Reuters estimates.

Industrial production climbed 5.9% in the first two months of the year from a year ago, slower than the 6.2% growth in December, but faster than a 5.3% expansion forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Fixed asset investment, reported on a year-to-date basis, rose by 4.1%, beating the 3.6% growth estimated by economists, a notable jump from the 3.2% increase last year.

The data comes shortly after Chinese policymakers unveiled a wide-ranging plan to stimulate domestic consumption, reiterating Beijing’s pledges to bolster residents’ income and household spending.

The notice, published Sunday, repeated Beijing’s plan to stabilize the stock market, establish a childcare subsidy scheme as well as boosting tourism.

While the high-level document appears to lack concrete implementation details, it provides a glance into Beijing’s stance toward addressing some deep-seated issues, such as the slowing income growth and insufficient social safety net, Lynn Song, chief China economist at ING, told CNBC via email.

“Directionally it is quite encouraging that policymakers are taking a sober look at these themes, and it should help the longer term transition to a consumption driven economy,” he added.

Growth target

Chinese leadership took on a hefty task by keeping a growth target of “around 5%” this year, a target seen harder to reach given rising trade tensions with the U.S. and entrenched deflationary pressure for the economy.

Economists say Beijing will likely need to provide stronger stimulus to achieve this year’s growth target and bolster domestic consumption to fill the hole left by potentially slowing exports. Exports contributed nearly a quarter of China’s GDP last year.

In a sign of a persistent drop in demand, China’s consumer price inflation in February fell below zero for the first time in over a year. Beijing revised down its annual inflation target to “around 2%” — the lowest in more than two decades — from above 3% in prior years, a move seen to show a degree of official acceptance of the current deflationary environment.

As part of an expanded fiscal package, Chinese leaders pledged at an annual parliamentary meeting earlier this month an additional 300 billion yuan ($41.5 billion) of ultra-long special treasury bonds for consumers’ subsidy support.

Still, beyond the trade-in program, the existing stimulus measures have barely targeted consumers directly.

Finance

Treasury Secretary Bessent says Trump is heading off financial crisis

Published

19 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Business Finance News

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaking to CNBC on March 13th, 2025.

CNBC

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the Trump administration is focused on preventing a financial crisis that could be the result of massive government spending over the past few years.

“What I could guarantee is we would have had a financial crisis. I’ve studied it, I’ve taught it, and if we had kept up at these spending levels that — everything was unsustainable,” Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We are resetting, and we are putting things on a sustainable path.”

President Donald Trump has made getting the government’s fiscal house in order a priority since taking office. He created the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to spearhead job cuts and early retirement incentives across multiple federal agencies.

Still, the U.S. debt and deficit problem worsened during Trump’s first month in office, as the budget shortfall for February passed the $1 trillion mark.

Bessent noted that there are “no guarantees” there won’t be a recession.

The market has been on a tumultuous ride as of late as Trump’s widespread tariffs raised concerns about inflation and economic slowdown. The S&P 500 on Thursday fell into a 10% correction from its February high as volatility spiked.

Bessent believes pullbacks like the one the market is in right now are benign, and Trump’s pro-business policies will boost the market and the economy over the long run.

“I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years, and I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal,” he said. “What’s not healthy is straight up, that you get these euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis. It would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ’06, ’07. We wouldn’t have had the problems in ’08.”

“I’m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great,” Bessent added. “I say that one week does not the market make.”

Finance

China’s ‘Fab Four’ tech stocks are stealing the spotlight from the U.S.

Published

23 hours ago

March 16, 2025

Business Finance News

Finance

Goldman Sachs’ new downside protection ETF

Published

2 days ago

March 15, 2025

Business Finance News

Protect your portfolio from market volatility with these new ETFs

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is trying to serve more investors looking for downside protection from market turmoil.

Bryon Lake helped the firm launch its newest buffer exchange-traded fund this month: the Goldman Sachs U.S. Large Cap Buffer 3 ETF.

“I’m an investor. You’re an investor. The folks watching are investors, and there’s an incredible amount of uncertainty right now: Tariffs, the widening out of equity markets away from Mag 7 [and] geopolitical issues,” the Goldman Sachs chief transformation officer told anchor Bob Pisani on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”

Lake joined Goldman Sachs last summer. According to the firm’s press release, it was for a newly created role aimed at expanding its investment strategies. Previously, Lake headed the global ETF business at JPMorgan Chase

“The buffer products are designed to help protect people to the downside while also allowing them to participate to the upside,” he said. “The way they’re designed, is they’ll protect from down 5% to 15% while still allowing you to participate upwards of 5% to 7%. And, then those reset on a quarterly basis.”

Lake suggests the buffer ETFs use approaches that have strong track records.

“These are… tried and true strategies that have been used by investors for decades now,” he said.

The Goldman Sachs U.S. Large Cap Buffer 3 ETF is down about 3% since it started trading on March 4. The S&P 500 is off almost 4% in the same time frame.