Having spent all year trying to put a floor under the tumbling yuan, China’s central bank is suddenly faced with the opposite problem and is turning to subtle ways to stop the currency from appreciating sharply.
The usually restrained yuan <CNY=CFXS> has strengthened 1.3% against the dollar in August, lifted by expectations of Fed rate cuts strengthening Japan’s yen.
On China’s commercial banking front, Bank of China Vice Chairman and President Liu Jin resigned on Sunday. The state-owned lender said its board had approved Chairman Ge Haijiao to serve as acting president.
The U.S. political landscape offered few new signs of certainty for global investors after Vice President Kamala Harris sealed the Democratic presidential nomination with a muscular speech on Thursday, laying down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Republican rival and former President Donald Trump.
With 11 weeks left in the contest for the White House, contracts for a Harris victory are trading at 55 cents, with a potential $1 payout, on the PredictIt politics betting platform.
Contracts for a win by Trump, who has suggested he would impose tariffs of 60% or higher on all Chinese goods, are at 49 cents.
Tariffs were in the spotlight last week after China’s Commerce Ministry met with automakers and industry associations to discuss raising import tariffs on large-engined gasoline vehicles, sounding a warning as the European Union nears a tariff decision on Chinese electric cars.
On Friday, the United States added 105 Russian and Chinese firms to a trade restriction list over their alleged support of the Russian military.
