Alibaba, Nio Soar: Hang Seng Jumps Over 2% As Wall Street Cheers Upbeat Consumer Confidence Reading

Hong Kong stocks soared in early morning trade on Thursday, with the benchmark Hang Seng rising over 2%, as investors and traders cheered U.S. consumer confidence data surging to an eight-month high in December following a drop in inflation and the labor market remaining strong. Twelve-month inflation expectations, too, fell to their lowest level since Sept. 2021, at 6.7%.

Shares of Xpeng rose over 11%, while Nio gained over 6% in opening trade. Alibaba shares rose over 3.5% while JD.com stock gained over 4.5%.

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Macro News: Berlin has sent its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines to China that would be initially administered to German expatriates, reported Reuters, citing a German government spokesperson.

Chinese workers with mild COVID-19 have been asked to go back to work in some cities, as officials look to limit the economic impact of a surge in cases, reported Bloomberg.

Company News: Tesla Inc TSLA China chief Tom Zhu and a team have been called in to troubleshoot production issues in the United States, reported Reuters.

The wait time for the ET5, Nio's lowest-priced model, has been further shortened in China, reported CnEVPost.

Top Gainers and Losers: Country Garden Services Holdings Company Limited and JD.com, Inc. were the top gainers among Hang Seng constituents, having risen over 4% each. WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc. and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Limited are the top losers, having shed 0.88% and 0.73%, respectively.

Global News: U.S. futures traded in the green on Thursday morning Asia session. The Dow Jones futures gained 0.17% while the Nasdaq futures rose 0.25%. The S&P 500 futures were trading higher by 0.23%.

Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, Australia’s ASX 200 was trading higher by 0.63%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.27% higher while China’s Shanghai Composite index gained 0.56%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.77%.

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