Now that China’s key ministers have spoken on stimulus, analysts have narrowed down the stocks likely to benefit. Chinese stocks have tempered their recent rally as investors await more policy details. Data out Friday showed retail sales and industrial production for September beat expectations, while the real estate slump remained pronounced. Third-quarter GDP grew by 4.6%, mildly better than expected. “Overall, GDP growth YTD has been 4.8% which is slightly behind the government’s growth target of 5.0%,” David Chao, global market strategist of Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) at Invesco, said in a note Friday. “But given the recently announced stimulus measures,” he said. “I’m confident that growth is likely to accelerate in Q4 which is likely to boost full year 2024 growth above the 5.0% level.” Beyond interest rate cuts, the most tangible Chinese stimulus policies include subsidies to boost consumption with a trade-in program, along with incremental property market support. The central bank on Friday further detailed its new program to lend funds to companies to buy stocks. This stock-support program will likely benefit some names more than others, Morgan Stanley analysts said in an Oct. 14 report. They screened for mainland-traded Chinese stocks with relatively high dividend yields and strong cash flow. From that pool, the analysts looked for names which trade at least 20% higher than their Hong Kong-listed shares, and have at least 10% implied upside to Morgan Stanley’s price target. The four overweight-rated names that met those screening criteria were: PetroChina , WeiChai Power , Aluminum Corp. and Anhui Conch Cement . 1857-SZ YTD mountain PetroChina in 2024 China’s housing minister Ni Hong on Thursday indicated Beijing would speed up financial support for completing qualified, unfinished real estate projects that have already been sold. He was the latest senior official to hold a press conference, after the central bank head in late September, the economic planner on Oct. 8 and the finance minister on Oct. 12. If developers can get more funding, that may not boost sales immediately, but it can help improve confidence, said Edward Chan, a director at S & P Global Ratings. His team estimates China’s property sales will decline this year and next — to less than half its peak from 2021 — before stabilizing in the second half of 2025. While Chinese property developers may not bounce back right away, HSBC analysts expect construction software company Glodon, listed in Shenzhen, can benefit from property market stabilization. Enterprise cloud company Sangfor, also listed in Shenzhen, derives 90% from small businesses and local governments, making it a “major beneficiary” of the finance ministry’s plans to support local governments, the HSBC analysts said in an Oct. 14 report. “Market focus will likely shift from policy to fundamentals, and market dynamics from a beta rally back to stock-picking,” the analysts said. As for beneficiaries of China’s efforts to boost consumption, the HSBC analysts like Hong Kong-listed consumer electronics company Xiaomi and robot vacuum cleaner company Roborock, listed in Shanghai. Retail sales beat expectations with growth of 3.2% in September. Home appliance sales surged by more than 30% in September, while furniture sales turned positive, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, when describing the impact of national trade-in policies. Even e-commerce giant Alibaba is notching benefits. The company, said government subsidies and platform benefits contributed to a more than seven-fold surge in pre-sales of home appliances during the first hour of its annual Singles Day shopping festival that kicked of Oct. 14. That’s 10 days earlier than last year. The holiday originated with a focus on Nov. 11.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.
Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.
“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.
“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”
Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.
Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.
In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.
“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.
The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.
Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.
Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.
On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.
“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”
Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. UnitedHealth — The health insurer’s stock popped roughly 7% as investors scooped up shares of the beaten-down name, which lost 23% last week. UnitedHealth had suspended its 2025 guidance, announced that its CEO is stepping down and is reportedly the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation . Reddit — Shares of the social media stock dropped more than 4% following a downgrade to equal weight from overweight at Wells Fargo. The firm said search traffic disruptions at Reddit are likely to become lasting as Google’s search integrates full artificial intelligence capabilities. Tesla , Palantir — Shares of retail investor favorites Tesla and Palantir each slid more than 3% as key tech stocks led Monday’s stock market losses. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — Shares of the drugmaker dropped about 1% after the company announced it had agreed to pay $256 million to buy most of the assets of genetic data company 23andMe out of bankruptcy. Regeneron’s deal does not include Lemonaid Health, 23andMe’s telehealth subsidiary. Bath & Body Works — Shares ticked 1% lower after the personal care retailer said CEO Gina Boswell would step down immediately. The company said former Nike executive Daniel Heaf would replace her. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant traded 1% lower after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has raised concerns about Apple’ s plan to use Alibaba’s A.I. on iPhones in China. TXNM Energy — Shares of the energy company popped 7% after TXNM agreed to be acquired by Blackstone’s infrastructure unit. TXNM Energy shareholders will receive $61.25 in cash for each share as part of the deal. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.
The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.
Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.
It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.
Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.
Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.
Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.