Beijing buys, the Fed steadies, and London counts its warnings

Beijing puts money behind the market

China's onshore shares rebounded on Monday after what the South China Morning Post described as state purchases worth some US$8.9bn, part of a broader effort by Beijing to arrest a slide in the A-share market. The buying came alongside talk of further support from regulators, and the report framed the intervention as a signal that officials were prepared to step in directly rather than wait for sentiment to turn.

The mood among strategists shifted in the same direction. Citi upgraded China to overweight, citing AI-related volatility elsewhere and continued geopolitical friction as reasons to look again at Chinese equities. The note landed on the same morning as the state-purchase story, a rare alignment of official action and sell-side opinion.

Not every corner of the market is basking in official warmth. The South China Morning Post reported that China is expected to wrap up a series of antitrust probes as soon as this week, with Trip.com among the companies awaiting a verdict. The outcome will show how far the regulatory thaw of recent years extends when a specific name is in the frame.

Zhang Yichen, writing in the same publication, argued that buyout funds rather than initial public offerings may define China's next capital market cycle. His case rested on the idea that private ownership changes, not new listings, are where the activity is now concentrated.

A steadier hand at the Fed

Across the Pacific, Hamish McRae used his column in This is Money to argue that there is now a grown-up at the US Federal Reserve. The piece read the central bank's recent conduct as more measured than the market had feared, and treated that as the more important development of the week.

The statistical backdrop is about to move as well. The Wall Street Journal reported that a revamp of how US inflation is measured is set to lower the headline figure, and that the change arrives at a critical moment for the debate over interest rates. A methodological adjustment rather than a shift in prices, it nonetheless alters the number that policymakers and investors watch.

Retail investors, meanwhile, are looking past the names that dominated the past two years. The Journal reported that everyday investors have cooled on the so-called Magnificent Seven and moved into a newer set of AI-linked stocks. The rotation is one of preference among individuals rather than a verdict from the institutions.

London counts the cost

In London the tone was more sober. City A.M. reported a jump in profit warnings from London-listed companies, and attributed much of the increase to the fallout from the war involving Iran. Disrupted trade and higher input costs featured in the explanations firms gave for lowering their expectations.

The weakness has drawn buyers of a particular kind. A separate City A.M. report described private equity firms eyeing a valuation gap as the City falls to takeovers, with lower share prices making UK-listed companies targets for funds sitting on capital. The two stories fit together: warnings depress valuations, and depressed valuations invite bids.

The Bank of England added a change of its own. The Guardian reported that the Bank will stop accepting bonds linked to coal as collateral for key loans, tightening the terms on which it lends against corporate debt. The move narrows the pool of eligible assets rather than changing the rate at which the Bank lends.

Further afield, Hong Kong's pension debate returned to the agenda. The South China Morning Post reported calls for a rule change to allow the territory's mandatory pension fund a wider choice of exchange-traded funds for its 4.8m members. The proposal would broaden what the scheme can hold, a structural question rather than a market one.