stlplaceLast Updated on May 20, 2007 by stlplace
One thing I noticed during China trip is it’s difficult for college graduates to find a decent paid job. This applies to the graduate student too. I don’t have statistics but this is what I heard from friends, relatives, and the media. This reminds me a similar trend in the US, in recent years college graduates here had a hard time to find jobs too. Things improved as the US economy recovered from the recession.
Last Updated on May 19, 2007 by stlplace
You can read all this in JRJ.com if you know Chinese. My take on this is policy only works when market does not anticipate this. This time China Central Bank did give the investors (speculators) a surprise. But fundamentally, the growth of economy won’t slow down, and the company earning growth should continue for a while. Even in the short term, it may embolden the speculators because this removes another cloud (expect no interest hike for a while). People simply won’t move money from stock back to savings to get the 0.27% interest increase.
I think these two reasons also explains why the stock market is so hot in China?
Last Updated on May 17, 2007 by stlplace
I got it in email. The Seattle’s Best Coffee is opening stores in the Borders Creve Coeur and South county stores (it already opened in Borders Chesterfield and Brentwood). Here is the link for coupon.
As you may know, Starbucks also started in Seattle in 1970s.
Last Updated on May 16, 2007 by stlplace
Reuters has an excellent article on this. I don’t need to say anything more. Yes I will buy more Starbucks if it hits 27.
Separately, I started the trial offer of Netflix, the online DVD (movie) rental service. It’s very easy to use, and one important feature I notice is: they will always send a new movie (according to viewer interest, the moive queue) once the user returns the old one. Sounds like they are trying to get the user addicted to the movie?
Seriously I think the coffee and movie are in the business of “cheer people up”.
Last Updated on May 15, 2007 by stlplace
Today is Tuesday May 15, the Chinese market had a huge sell down today. I don’t know the reason (sometimes the market doen’t need any reason to go down or up). But I think it’s a healthy thing for the China market has some down days in addition to the up days. Good “market risk” education for the new comers.
Last Updated on May 20, 2007 by stlplace
This is the report. From the Conference call, it appears they made a mistake on the announcement, I believe there was a typo on the first bullet (should be 40% rather than 24.7% YoY if exclude the large bid in 2006)
My comments on the results:
Last Updated on May 14, 2007 by stlplace
I saved an invoice of gas before the trip (early March), it was 2.379 per gallon. When I came back, it went up to 3.049 at the same Shell gas station at my neighbourhood. I don’t know what happened. Maybe I paid too much attention to the Chinese stock market and lose what’s happening in the middle east and Nigeria? One thing I do know is the crude oil price did not change too much during this period.
Last Updated on May 13, 2007 by stlplace
I came back to St. Louis last night after staying in Shanghai for the last 10 weeks. The united 836 flight from Shanghai to Chicago took about 13 hours; it took another 5 hours to get from ORD to STL (4 hours stop over included). At one point during my 4-hour wait, I thought about driving from Chicago to St. Louis only takes 5 hours (300 miles). When I was in China, I heard about the MagLev (bullet train) from Shanghai to Hangzhou. It will take half an hour if completed (100 miles), making Hangzhou more like a suburban of Shanghai.
Last Updated on May 11, 2007 by stlplace
(Update) Here is a Chinese article explains more details. The minimum balance is RMB 300,000 to open an account inside China. Other restrictions apply.
(Original) I was wondering why the Chinese ADRs all rose today. Although I heard the China central bank is allowing domestic bank buy oversea stocks through QDII. This MarketWatch article connected the dots for me. I think this is a small way the goverment tries to divert some money from the red hot domestic stock market, especially the B shares market.
Last Updated on May 11, 2007 by stlplace
Mindray (meeting announcement): 8:00 PM on May 14, 2007 U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 AM on May 15, 2007 Beijing/Hong Kong Time). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:
Hong Kong: +852-3002-1672
US Toll Free: +1-866-271-6130
International: +1-617-213-8894
Passcode for all regions: Mindray
Home Inns (meeting announcement): 9 PM on May 21st, 2007 U.S. Eastern Standard Time (9 AM on May 22nd, 2007 Beijing/Hong Kong time). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:
China Mainland (toll free): 10.800.130.0399
Hong Kong: +852.3002.1672
U.S. and International: +1.617.213.8893
Pass code for all regions: HOME INNS