Alibaba, Nio Stocks Drop: Hang Seng Opens Weaker As US Inflation Data, Fed Meet Eyed

Hong Kong stocks opened in the red on Monday, with the benchmark Hang Seng losing 1% in morning trade, as investors and traders shifted focus to U.S. consumer price inflation due on Tuesday and the crucial FOMC meeting where the Federal Reserve is expected to hike its policy rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday.

Shares of Li Auto fell over 11%, while Xpeng stock lost over 7%. Alibaba shares lost over 1% in morning trade, while Nio was down over 4%.

“Following the very rapid tightening in policy rates this year, we expect the FOMC, ECB and BoE will reduce the magnitude of rate hikes to 50bp but reaffirm that they remain determined to bring inflation back to target and will take the appropriate and the necessary steps,” ANZ Research said in a note.

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Macro News: China’s COVID-19 worries deepened on Sunday as many shops and other businesses remained closed, and an expert cautioned of many thousands of new coronavirus cases, reported Reuters.

Close to $50 billion of investment agreements were signed during the China summit held in Saudi Arabia last week, reported Bloomberg, citing the kingdom’s investment minister.

Company News: NIO founder William Li confirmed that the company is set to launch two new models at the NIO Day 2022 event at the end of this month, reported CnEVPost.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation SNPMF known as Sinopec, which is a minority stakeholder of CMES, is in talks to secure newbuilds at Jiangnan and Dalian, reported Reuters.

Top Gainers and Losers: Country Garden Services Holdings Company Limited and Longfor Group Holdings Limited were the top losers among Hang Seng constituents, having shed over 11% and 5%, respectively. Hang Lung Properties Limited and Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited were the top gainers, having risen over 4% and 1%, respectively.

Global News: U.S. futures traded in the red on Monday morning Asia session. The Dow Jones futures lost 0.07%, while the Nasdaq futures fell 0.18%. The S&P 500 futures were trading lower by 0.16%.

Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s ASX 200 was down 0.52%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.29% lower while China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.41%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.49%.

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