** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index fell 0.6% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.3%. Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng tanked roughly 2%, as tech shares tumbled.
** The United States will explore taking action against entities connected to China's military that supported the flight of a Chinese spy balloon into U.S. airspace last week, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.
** The U.S. is conducting a post-mortem on the wreckage of the balloon, and "one can sense the impending storm in Washington," John Browning, Managing Director of BANDS Financial wrote in a note. "Certainly, more sanctions will follow."
** Meanwhile, data released on Friday showed that China's
January factory gate prices fell more than economists expected,
suggesting that flashes of domestic demand — that had stoked
consumer prices after the zero-COVID policy ended — are not yet
strong enough to rekindle upstream sectors.
** "While local investors agreed overall economic growth
would recover this year, there appeared to be a lack of
conviction on the magnitude of the rebound," Goldman Sachs wrote
in a report on Friday.
** Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China Economics at
Capital Economics, expects China's central bank to cut policy
rates as soon as next week to bolster the economy further.
** China's tech-focused STAR Market dropped 1.2%,
while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech Index slumped 4.7%, amid media
reports that the Joe Biden administration is poised to introduce
new restrictions on U.S. companies funding the development of
advanced computing technologies in China.
** China's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Index fell 1.2% from 10-month highs on Friday. Hanwang Technology Co Ltd , widely seen as a bellwether of Chinese interest in ChatGPT-concept stocks, tumbled nearly 6% after disclosing that several major shareholders reduced stakes over the past few days. (Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
