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Chinese finance minister hints at increasing the deficit at highly anticipated briefing

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Lan Fo’an, China’s finance minister, center, speaks as Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), left, and Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), listen during a news conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.

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BEIJING — China’s Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an told reporters Saturday during a press briefing that the central government has room to increase debt and the deficit.

He said such policies were still under discussion. Four policies that have reached a decision-making stage covered support for local governments to address debt risks and stabilize real estate, major state-owned banks and youth employment, Lan said.

Economists have said China needs additional fiscal support, but Beijing has yet to announce any, even in the latest flurry of high-level policy announcements.

In a meeting in late September, led by Chinese President Xi Jinping, authorities had called for strengthening monetary and fiscal policy support. But they did not lay out the details.

Analyst projections for how much fiscal stimulus is needed range from around 2 trillion yuan ($283.1 billion) to more than 10 trillion yuan.

Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, had cautioned in a note Thursday that any such stimulus that could come during the briefing on Saturday would typically need approval by China’s parliament, expected to hold a meeting later this month. He added that how any funds are used is just as important as the amount that’s delivered — whether they only go to shoring up struggling local government finances or focus on boosting consumption.

China’s retail sales grew only modestly over the last few months, and the country’s real estate slump has shown few signs of turning around.

GDP rose by 5% in the first half of the year, sparking concerns that China could miss its full-year target of around 5%. All eyes are now on Oct. 18, when the National Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release third-quarter GDP.

China focusing more on boosting consumer demand would be a 'good sign': strategist

After markets reopened Tuesday following a weeklong holiday, mainland Chinese stocks became volatile throughout the week, as a stimulus-fueled rally lost stream. The declines took major indexes back to levels seen in late September.

Stocks had climbed then — the CSI 300 saw its best week since 2008 — as major policy announcements signaled that the Chinese government was finally stepping in to stimulate slowing growth.

Just days after the Federal Reserve began its easing cycle, the People’s Bank of China cut a few of its interest rates and extended existing real estate support measures by two years. The PBOC also launched a roughly $71 billion program allowing institutional investors to borrow funds for stock investing.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, pledged in a rare press conference Tuesday to speed up use of 200 billion yuan originally allocated for next year, mostly for investment projects. The NDRC did not announce additional stimulus.

Saturday is a working day in China, but markets are closed.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

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Warner Bros. Discovery, Tesla, Robinhood, IonQ and more

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Robinhood shares drop after the online brokerage fails to get the nod to join the S&P 500

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People wait in line for T-shirts at a pop-up kiosk for the online brokerage Robinhood along Wall Street after the company went public with an initial public offering earlier in the day on July 29, 2021 in New York City.

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Robinhood shares sold off on Monday as the online brokerage was snubbed in the latest quarterly rebalance of the S&P 500 Index after months of speculation that it could earn a coveted spot in the benchmark.

Shares of Robinhood dropped nearly 5% in premarket trading. The stock has rallied 3.3% Friday to bring last week’s gain to over 13% before the S&P Dow Jones Indices said after the bell that the S&P 500 would remain unchanged.

Just last week, Bank of America called Robinhood a top candidate to join the S&P 500 during the big reshuffling in June. The S&P 500 rebalance, which typically comes on the third Friday of the last month in a quarter, is usually an impactful event as it can spark billions of dollars of trading and spur passive funds to snap up its shares. Companies being added to the index can generally expect funds like that to buy huge amounts of their shares in the coming weeks.

Crypto exchange Coinbase was the latest beneficiary of such an inclusion. The stock skyrocketed 24% in the next trading session following the announcement last month.

Still, Robinhood has had a major comeback this year so far with shares doubling in price. The online brokerage’s shares hit a fresh record high last week amid a rebound in both stocks and crypto. The company had fallen out of favor after the GameStop trading mania of 2021 fizzled and the collapse of FTX triggered a sell-off in digital assets.

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UK’s FCA teams up with Nvidia to let banks experiment with AI

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LONDON — Britain’s financial services watchdog on Monday announced a new tie-up with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia to let banks safely experiment with artificial intelligence.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it will launch a so-called Supercharged Sandbox that will “give firms access to better data, technical expertise and regulatory support to speed up innovation.”

Starting from October, financial services institutions in the U.K. will be allowed to experiment with AI using Nvidia’s accelerated computing and AI Enterprise Software products, the watchdog said in a press release.

The initiative is designed for firms in the “discovery and experiment phase” with AI, the FCA noted, adding that a separate live testing service exists for firms further along in AI development.

“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so,” Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer, said in a statement. “We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth.”

The FCA’s new sandbox addresses a key issue for banks, which have faced challenges shipping advanced new AI tools to their customers amid concerns over risks around privacy and fraud.

Large language models from the likes of OpenAI and Google send data back to overseas facilities — and privacy regulators have raised the alarm over how this information is stored and processed. There have meanwhile been several instances of malicious actors using generative AI to scam people.

Nvidia is behind the graphics processing units, or GPUs, used to train and run powerful AI models. The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, is expected to give a keynote talk at a tech conference in London on Monday morning.

Last year, HSBC’s generative AI lead, Edward Achtner, told a London tech conference he sees “a lot of success theater” in finance when it comes to artificial intelligence — hinting that some financial services firms are touting advances in AI without tangible product innovations to show for it.

He added that, while banks like HSBC have used AI for many years, new generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT come with their own unique compliance risks.

Zopa CEO: Fintechs face challenges when it comes to scaling in the UK

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