Chinese smartphone company Honor has released devices that fold up to be nearly as thin as an iPhone.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
BEIJING — Chinese smartphone company Honor on Thursday announced backing from new investors as the Huawei spinoff prepares for an initial public offering.
The new backers are: China Telecom — one of the major telecommunications operators in the country — CICC Capital, Chinese venture capital firm Cornerstone and SDG, a fund linked to a Shenzhen economic zone. Honor said its existing partners also made a new investment round through an entity called Jinshi Xingyao.
Honor said earlier this year it planned to start changing its shareholder structure in the fourth quarter, after which it would start the IPO process “at a suitable time.”
The company has not said where it would list. Honor announced its IPO plans in November 2023.
Honor spun off from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in November 2020 after the parent company was hit by U.S. sanctions. Huawei said it does not hold any shares in Honor or have involvement in business decisions.
Last week, Honor revealed the next version of its operating system can use AI to mimic actions on a touchscreen, such as opening an app to order coffee delivery. The company on Wednesday released its new Magic7 series of phones that can use the AI features in China.
Just under one-third of Honor’s sales came from outside China in the first half of this year, according to Counterpoint.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
For two fund managers at Fidelity International, Beijing’s latest stimulus announcements were significant enough for them to buy more beaten-down real estate stocks. Chinese authorities have released a series of incremental measures since late September that range from cutting interest rates to extending financial support for finishing construction on apartments that have already been sold. “This round of the policy pivot is quite significant in the sense that it is a well-coordinated [number of] supporting measures issued by different levels of government bodies,” Theresa Zhou, a fund manager at Fidelity International, told CNBC in an interview Wednesday. “We have been moderately increasing our position in China,” Zhou said. After the September policy announcements, she said the firm turned more positive on “certain cyclical names” in China real estate, after previously focusing on online platforms in the sector. If household confidence returns, that can pave the way for real estate prices to stabilize, especially in China’s larger cities, she said. As of late 2023 and early this year, Zhou said she had been concerned about the housing downcycle given relatively high inventories and falling home prices. Zhou and Ben Li are co-managers of Fidelity’s Greater China Fund . The firm does not disclose exact stock transactions. “We have been selectively increasing positions in quality companies in say the consumer and property sectors,” Li said. “In terms of consumer and property sector, we think they were hurt by the macro challenges in the last few years [and with the policy turning, some] may start to see incremental improvements.” “We think experienced-based consumption will continue to do well,” he said, noting the firm’s investment in online travel agencies. One of the top 10 holdings of Fidelity’s Greater China Fund is Chinese online booking platform Trip.com . In McKinsey senior partner Daniel Zipser’s latest assessment of Chinese consumer sentiment , he pointed out that property transactions in October and the first half of November rose by 2%, the first increase this year. That’s according to the firm’s analysis of daily transaction data for 30 cities. “It is fair to say that October has seen an uptick in consumption, creating positive momentum,” Zipser said. While China has not handed out cash to the public, authorities have used targeted trade-in subsidies to spur purchases of home appliances and other big-ticket items. Companies, such as Alibaba , have noted a boost in sales. Those trade-in measures helped increase panel TV sales in China since the third quarter, Nomura analysts said in a Nov. 20 note. They estimate that, in a sign of growing demand, utilization of TV production lines at BOE and TCL Technology will likely increase in November from October. Nomura rates the two Chinese electronics companies, both listed in Shenzhen, as buy. The two Fidelity fund managers emphasized that their strategy focuses on selecting companies based on their individual competitive advantage. They added that it will take time to see the impact of stimulus, and said that they are watching upcoming government meetings in December and March for more policy details. China’s top leaders typically gather in mid-December to discuss economic plans for the year ahead. Those measures and growth targets are then announced at a meeting of parliament in March. “The positive change from that stimulus package is removing the tail risk and putting a floor [under] the market,” Zhou said, noting she is “cautiously optimistic.” Earnings comments in the last two weeks from major Chinese companies have underscored how it will take time to see the impact of stimulus . “When we talk to companies on the ground after the earnings, it’s positive that we do sense some improvement in their tone in terms of the enterprise confidence and also their expectation for the next year,” Zhou said. In terms of geopolitical risk, she pointed out that Chinese companies have built out their overseas supply chain, making them better prepared today than they were several years ago for President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs.
The bitcoin rally is generating a false sense of security among investors, according to the strategist behind the so-called granddaddy of gold exchange-traded funds.
State Street Global Advisors’ George Milling-Stanley warns cryptocurrency plays don’t offer the stability of gold.
“Bitcoin, pure and simple, it’s a return play, and I think that people have been jumping onto the return plays,” the firm’s chief gold strategist said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Milling-Stanley’s comments came as his firm’s SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) celebrated its 20-year anniversary this week. It is the world’s largest physically backed gold ETF, and it’s up more than 30% in 2024.
“Gold was $450 an ounce [20 years ago],” said Milling-Stanley. “It’s now five times what that price was then. If you look at a five-times price, then gold should be somewhere over $100,000 in twenty years’ time.”
Gold just had its best weekly performance since March 2023. Gold futures settled at $2,712.20 on Friday, the highest settle since Nov. 5. Gold prices are now just 3% below the record high hit on Oct. 30.
Milling-Stanley thinks investors who treasure gold’s safety qualities should reconsider piling into bitcoin. He suggests the crypto world is trying to manipulate them.
“This is why they [bitcoin promoters] called it mining. There’s no mining involved. This is a computer operation, pure and simple,” he said. “But they called it mining because they wanted to seem like gold — maybe take some of the aura away from the gold.”
Yet, he acknowledges it is unclear how high the yellow metal can actually go.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen over the next 20 years except it’s going to be a fun ride,” Milling-Stanley said. “I think that gold is going to do well.”
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Elastic — Shares surged about 15% after the software company topped Wall Street’s expectations for its fiscal second-quarter results. Elastic posted adjusted earnings of 59 cents per share on revenue of $365 million. Meanwhile, analysts surveyed by LSEG expected it to earn 38 cents per share on revenue of $357 million. Reddit — The stock fell 6% after Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Advance Magazine Publishers is looking to establish a credit facility using as much as $1.2 billion of its stake in Reddit. Gap — The stock jumped more than 10% on the heels of the clothing retailer increasing its full-year outlook — its third time doing so this year. The company now anticipates sales will advance between 1.5% and 2%. Gap had said in its prior forecast that sales would be “up slightly.” Super Micro Computer — Shares moved more than 11% higher, extending its more than 15% gain in the previous session. The stock has been having a monster rally this week, with shares up more than 73% week to date, on the heels of the company naming BDO as its new auditor and providing plans to the Nasdaq about how it will remain in compliance with the exchange’s rules. Intuit — Shares of the financial software company fell 4% after the release of its fiscal first-quarter report. Intuit’s results beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines, according to LSEG, but the company said it expects a revenue decline in its consumer group during the second quarter. Intuit also reiterated its full-year guidance. Ross Stores — Shares moved 3% higher after the department store chain reported third-quarter earnings of $1.48 per share, topping the $1.40 expected from analysts polled by LSEG. Its revenue, however, fell short of the consensus estimate. Carpenter Technology — Shares advanced more than 5% after JPMorgan initiated coverage of the steelmaker with an overweight rating. The firm sees more than 21% upside ahead, citing robust demand for the company’s premium products. StoneCo — Shares jumped about 10% after the Brazilian payments company announced a share repurchase program of up to 2 billion reais . The program has no fixed expiration date, according to the company. Deckers Outdoor — The shoemaker added more than 5% and hit an all-time intraday high following Needham’s initiation at a buy rating. Needham called Deckers “one of the highest-quality companies in our coverage” and added the stock to its conviction list. MicroStrategy — Shares of the bitcoin development company rose more than 10%, reversing the more than 16% of losses seen in the previous session. The gains come as bitcoin moved closer toward $100,000 during Friday’s trading session after breaching $99,000 for the first time on Thursday. Texas Pacific Land — The stock jumped more than 12% on the heels of the announcement that the landowner will be joining the S & P 500 , replacing Marathon Oil following ConocoPhillips ‘ acquisition of that company. Its inclusion on the index will take effect Nov. 26 before the bell. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.