U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, center, waits with others to receive Chinese President Xi Jinping at the San Francisco International Airport on Nov. 14, 2023, ahead of Xi’s meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
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BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was scheduled to arrive in China on Thursday ahead of four full days of meetings with Chinese officials.
It’s her second trip to the country since the summer, as the U.S. and China seek to increase high-level communication in an otherwise tense relationship. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also due to visit China again later this year.
“I think our expectation is that we will at senior levels, and increasingly at all levels, continue to have ongoing and deepening dialogue. We went for too long with too little communication, and misunderstandings developed,” Yellen told reporters ahead of her arrival in China.
Her trip will cover the southern city of Guangzhou — the capital of China’s export-heavy province of Guangdong — and the national capital of Beijing, according to a press release.
Here’s her full itinerary of meetings:
Friday, April 5 — meet with Vice Premier He Lifeng, Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong, economic experts and AmCham China business representatives
Saturday, April 6 — continue meetings with Vice Premier He Lifeng
Sunday, April 7 — meet with Premier Li Qiang, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, Beijing mayor Yin Yong, leading Chinese economists and Peking University students and professors
Monday, April 8 — meet with former Vice Premier Liu He, People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng
What will they talk about?
According to the Treasury, Yellen will discuss “unfair trade practices and underscoring the global economic consequences of Chinese industrial overcapacity.”
China has faced growing global scrutiny over how the country’s emphasis on building up its manufacturing capabilities, including the use of subsidies and policy support to do so, has helped Chinese companies to sell products such as solar panels at far lower prices than manufacturers in other countries.
Guangdong is by far the top province in China by value of exports, according to Wind Information.
The province exported nearly 5.4 trillion yuan ($750 billion) in manufactured products last year, with equipment accounting for two thirds, according to Tu Gaokun, director of Guangdong’s industry and information technology department.
He told reporters last week the province was “committed” to improving productivity, and noted how it aimed to build up sectors such as new energy storage, biomanufacturing and commercial aviation.
Tackling ‘illicit finance’
During her meetings in China, Yellen will also “work to expand bilateral cooperation on countering illicit finance, which can drive important progress on shared efforts against criminal activity such as drug trafficking and fraud,” the Treasury said.
It added that Yellen would discuss work on bolstering financial stability, addressing climate change and resolving debt distress in developing nations.
The trip will mark Yellen’s third meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng, whom the Treasury secretary is also set to meet later this month at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group spring meetings in Washington, D.C.
Ted Pick, CEO Morgan Stanley, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 18th, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
Morgan Stanley topped analysts’ estimates for third quarter profit as its wealth management, trading and investment banking operations generated more revenue than expected.
Here’s what the company reported:
Earnings:$1.88 a share vs $1.58 LSEG estimate
Revenue: $15.38 billion vs. $14.41 billion estimate
Morgan Stanley had several tailwinds in its favor. The bank’s massive wealth management business was helped by high stock market values in the quarter, which inflates the management fees the bank collects.
Investment banking has rebounded after a dismal 2023, a trend that may continue as easing rates will encourage more financing and merger activity.
Finally, its Wall Street rivals have posted better-than-expected trading results, making it unlikely that the firm missed out on elevated activity.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has invested heavily in its fast-growing international business as growth slows for its China-focused Taobao and Tmall business.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s international arm on Wednesday launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.
Alibaba’s fast-growing international unit released the AI translation product as an update to one unveiled about a year ago, which it says already has 500,000 merchant users. Sellers based in one country can use the translation tool to create product pages in the language of the target market.
The new version is based only on large language models, allowing it to draw on contextual clues such as culture or industry-specific terms, Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group and head of the business’ artificial intelligence initiative, told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.
“The idea is that we want this AI tool to help the bottom line of the merchants, because if the merchants are doing well, the platform will be doing well,” he said.
Large language models power artificial intelligence applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can also translate text. The models, trained on massive amounts of data, can generate humanlike responses to user prompts.
Alibaba’s translation tool is based on its own model called Qwen. The product supports 15 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Zhang said he expects “substantial demand” for the tool from Europe and the Americas. He also expects emerging markets to be a significant area of use.
When users of Alibaba.com — a site for suppliers to sell to businesses — are categorized by country, developing countries account for about half of the top 20 active AI tool users, Zhang said.
Chinese companies have increasingly looked abroad for growth opportunities, especially e-commerce merchants. PDD Holdings‘ Temu, fast fashion seller Shein and ByteDance’s TikTok are among the recent global market entrants. Many China-based merchants also sell on Amazon.com.
Zhang declined to share how much the updated version would cost. He said it was included in some service bundles for merchants wanting simple exposure to overseas users.
His thinking is that contextual translation makes it much more likely that consumers decide to buy. He shared an example in which a colloquial Chinese description for a slipper would have turned off English-speaking consumers if it was only translated literally, without getting at the implied meaning.
“The updated translation engine is going to make Double 11 a better experience for consumers because of more authentic expression,” Zhang said, in reference to the Alibaba-led shopping festival that centers on Nov. 11 each year.
Alibaba’s international business includes platforms such as AliExpress and Lazada, which primarily targets Southeast Asia. The international unit reported sales growth of 32% to $4.03 billion in the quarter ended June from a year ago.
That’s in contrast to a 1% year-on-year drop in sales to $15.6 billion for Alibaba’s main Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business, which has focused on China.
Nomura analysts expect that Alibaba’s international revenue slowed slightly to 29% year-on-year growth in the quarter ended September, while operating losses narrowed, according to an Oct. 10 report. Alibaba has yet to announce when it will release quarterly earnings.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: UnitedHealth — Shares plunged 7.2% after the health-care giant lowered its earnings guidance due to ongoing headwinds from a cyberattack earlier in the year. UnitedHealth cut the top end of its full-year earnings forecast, which is now $27.50 to $27.75 per share, compared to previous guidance of $27.50 to $28.00 per share. UnitedHealth still reported a top- and bottom-line beat in the third quarter. Walgreens Boots Alliance — The stock soared 11.9% following the drugstore chain’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat. Walgreens also plans to close about 1,200 stores over the next three years, which will be “immediately accretive” to its adjusted earnings and cash flow, the company said. ASML — Shares dropped more than 16% after the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker released its earnings report early and offered a weaker-than-expected sales outlook for 2025. The company’s CEO also warned of a “more gradual” recovery ahead. Other chip stocks fell as well, with Nvidia , Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom last down at least 4% each. Wolfspeed — Shares popped 23% on news that the North Carolina-based chipmaker will obtain up to $750 million in U.S. government grants for its new factories in North Carolina and New York. A group of investors including Apollo and Baupost will provide an additional $750 million in funding for its more than $6 billion plan. Bank of America — The lender saw shares gain 2% after it exceeded analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue on better-than-expected trading results. Net interest income, one of the key ways that banks make money, fell 2.9% to $14.1 billion, edging out the $14.06 billion StreetAccount estimate. Enphase Energy — Shares slid 6.8% on the back of a downgrade to sector perform from outperform by RBC Capital Markets. The firm said Enphase should grow at a slower rate than the consensus forecast pencils in. Johnson & Johnson — The health-care conglomerate gained 1.6% after posting quarterly results that exceeded expectations on the back of strong sales of oncology drugs. Johnson & Johnson reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.42 and $22.47 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, analysts surveyed by LSEG had forecast $2.21 in earnings per share on $22.16 billion in revenue. The firm also raised guidance for its 2024 profit and sales. Energy stocks — Energy stocks declined as oil prices dropped about 5% , with the sector last down more than 2%. APA was the biggest laggard, tumbling 6%. Diamondback Energy tanked 4.3%, while Occidental Petroleum , Valero Energy and Halliburton lost more than 3% each. Coty — The CoverGirl parent plunged 11% after trimming its fiscal first-quarter guidance and warning of slower growth trends in the U.S. Citigroup — Shares lost about 4% despite stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings . The bank posted earnings per share of $1.51 on $20.32 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated earnings of $1.31 per share on revenue of $19.48 billion. Charles Schwab — Shares of the brokerage company rallied more than 8% as third-quarter results topped analysts’ expectations. The company posted earnings of 77 cents, excluding one-time items, on $4.85 billion in revenue. PNC Financial — The Pittsburgh-based regional bank rose more than 3% on a better-than-expected earnings report. Earnings came in at $3.49, topping an LSEG estimate of $3.30 per share. The company reported $5.43 billion in revenue, topping a forecast of $5.39 billion. Boeing — Shares added about 2.1% after the aircraft manufacturer said it could raise up to $25 billion in debt and shares to increase liquidity. — CNBC’s Yun Li, Alex Harring, Hakyung Kim, Michelle Fox, Pia Singh, Sarah Min contributed reporting.