BEIJING
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Japanese 10,000 yen notes line up in Tokyo, in this February 28, 2013 picture illustration. REUTERS/Shohei Miyano/File Photo
April 15, 2019
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO (Reuters) – The yen hovered near its lowest level this year on Monday as more signs of stabilization in the Chinese economy and an upbeat start to the U.S. earnings season prompted investors to abandon the safe-haven currency to seek higher returns elsewhere.
The dollar firmed to 112.02 yen, near Friday’s high of 112.10, which was near its year-to-date high of 112.135 touched in early March.
The safe-haven Swiss franc has also eased against the euro, which strengthened to 1.1329 franc, recovering its losses made late last month to hit a three-week high on the franc.
The common currency traded at $1.1304, keeping intact its slow recovery from $1.1183 touched on April 2. It rose to as high as $1.1324 on Friday.
Chinese data published on Friday showed exports rebounded sharply and new bank loans increased far more than expected in March.
Although China’s imports remained weak, the data on the whole cemented hopes that the Chinese economy is bottoming out after a soft patch as Beijing has curbed de-leveraging efforts and stepped up support for the economy in recent months.
U.S. stocks also rallied on Friday on strong earnings from JPMorgan and an 11.5-percent jump in Walt Disney Co on news that it will start streaming services.
The S&P 500 index has reached its highest level in six months, coming within sight of testing a record high marked in September last year.
The more positive mood helped offset any concerns about upcoming trade talks between the United States and Japan, in which Washington is expected to include a currency provision in a bilateral trade agreement.
“We are seeing a classical risk-on market,” said Minori Uchida, chief currency analyst at MUFG Bank.
But Uchida also believes the dollar’s upside may be limited, given that speculators have already built up large long positions in the U.S. currency.
Data from U.S. watchdog on Friday showed speculators bolstered their net long U.S. dollar position in the latest week, pushing it to the highest since December 2015.
Against the yen, their net dollar long position was at the highest in about three months.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar stood at $0.7173, having hit a 1-1/2-month high of $0.71925.
The British pound fetched $1.3080, stuck in its recent trading range as fears of a no-deal Brexit have receded for now.
(Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh)
(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a markets index board in Tokyo June 12, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
April 15, 2019
By Swati Pandey
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares started on a firm footing on Monday and the dollar eased as risk appetite was whetted by better-than-expected data from China that helped boost confidence about the health of the world economy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.1 percent with South Korea’s KOSPI up 0.5 percent. Australian shares slightly weaker.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1.3 percent to the highest since early December.
Investors have been fretting about a global growth slowdown this year as trade disputes and tighter financial conditions hit demand. Last week, the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for the world economy for the third time in six months.
There have also been worries that weakness in key economies, including China, could spread to other countries, especially if elevated trade tensions between Beijing and Washington escalated further.
That explains why investors cheered Chinese data showing exports rebounded in March to a five-month high while new bank loans jumped by far more than expected. Total bank lending in the first three months of 2019 hit a record quarterly tally of 5.81 trillion yuan ($866.7 billion). [nL3N21S1F8][nL3N21Q1YT]
“Markets were buoyed by an improvement in China’s data which saw risk appetite improve,” ANZ said in a note to clients.
“A sustained improvement in the data will be important before confidence is restored. In the meantime, policymakers remain committed to setting ‘growth friendly’ monetary and fiscal policies.”
(Graphic: Asian stock markets – https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4)
News over the weekend added to the upbeat mood. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday a U.S.-China trade agreement would go “way beyond” previous efforts to open China’s markets to U.S. companies and hoped that the two sides were “close to the final round” of negotiations.
Also helping sentiment, the Group of 20 industrialized nations have called for a trade truce in a sign world leaders are prepared to take action to curtail risks of a global economic slowdown.
“We expect a relatively market-friendly U.S.-China deal,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch global economist Ethan Harris said in a note. “In our view, market and political concerns will constrain future fights. Think ‘skirmishes’ rather than ‘major battles.’”
The risk sensitive Australian dollar, which is also used as a proxy for China plays, hovered near a seven-week top at $0.7173.
Investors are next looking to China’s March-quarter gross domestic product data due Wednesday. All eyes are also on corporate earnings from major U.S. companies after quarterly results from JPMorgan handily beat analyst estimates last week.
All that positive news boosted Wall Street on Friday with the Dow jumping 1 percent, the S&P500 climbing 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq adding 0.5 percent.
In currencies, the dollar index was a shade weaker at 96.909 against a basket of major currencies as demand for safe haven assets eased. It had slipped to a near three-week trough of 96.745 on Friday.
The euro held at $1.1302 as dealers were gearing up for demand from Japan as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial closed in on its multi-billion-euro acquisition of DZ Bank’s aviation-finance business. [FRX/]
The common currency was also supported by encouraging data from the euro zone where industrial output in February declined by less than expected.
In commodities, oil provided big milestones, with Brent breaking through the $70 threshold last week and the U.S. benchmark posting six straight weeks of gains for the first time since early 2016. [O/R]
Commodities have had the best first-quarter start ever, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said, calling the annualized returns they are tracking the strongest in the past 100 years.
Brent crude oil futures was last off 31 cents at $71.24 while crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, eased 45 cents to $63.44.
(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Bombardier’s Global 7500, the first business jet to have a queen-sized bed and hot shower, is shown during a media tour in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo
April 14, 2019
By Allison Lampert, Jamie Freed and Brenda Goh
MONTREAL/SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Gulfstream Aerospace and Bombardier are trotting out their longest-range business jets at an Asian air show this week, as they compete for orders from China’s growing elite, despite the country’s slowing economy.
The Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, (ABACE) opens Tuesday in Shanghai under a cloud of economic uncertainty, amid slowing Chinese growth, the U.S.-China trade dispute, and Beijing’s crackdown on debt risks that has led funding to dry up in certain industries, brokers said.
“The biggest factor that impacted the business jet market was pessimism and uncertainty which stalled purchase intentions or forced those marginal owners to reconsider keeping their business jets,” said Jeffrey Lowe, managing director of Hong Kong-based Asian Sky Group.
Still, Canada’s Bombardier sees its new $73 million Global 7500 business jet making inroads in Greater China against market leader Gulfstream’s $65 million-plus G650 family.
The plane and train maker said on Sunday it secured firm orders for four Global 7500 planes that were converted from options taken by Hong Kong-based business jet management company HK Bellawings in 2018.
Greater China’s number of billionaires has been growing yearly by 10 percent over the past three years, and the Global 7500’s long range will help to “seize market share and to withstand any economic uncertainty in the region,” said Bombardier Business Aircraft President David Coleal by email.
Both Gulfstream’s 650ER and the Global 7500 connect far-flung cities like New York and Tokyo, an allure for elite Asian buyers who want to fly non-stop to Western hubs.
“You don’t need a G7500 to fly three or four hours. But when you do need (longer) range you can use this jet,” said Thomas Flohr, founder and chairman of Vista Global and a Global 7500 customer.
Gulfstream, a division of General Dynamics, which brought its large-cabin G500 jet into service last year, delivered 68 new corporate aircraft between 2015 and 2018 in the region, more than double the 32 planes delivered by its Canadian competitor, according to Asian Sky.
Gulfstream President Mark Burns said by email the U.S. company is seeing more optimism in the region and is “starting to see more activity as trade talks appear to be progressing and becoming more specific.”
The Asia Pacific region, nevertheless, accounted for only about 8 percent of the 3,478 business jets delivered globally over the last five years, compared with 2,122 jets delivered to North America, according to Cirium Fleets Analyzer data.
And the number of Chinese-owned second-hand business jets sold outside the country rose to 20 in 2018, compared with an annual average of 10 from 2014 to 2017, according to the Cirium data.
Jackie Wu, president of JetSolution Aviation Group, said weaker business jet sales have prompted her Hong Kong company to launch its first charter service using the supermidsized Embraer Legacy 600.
“We are an industry that very much reflects the health of an economy, or the world economy,” said Jetcraft Asia president David Dixon, adding he nevertheless sees greater demand from smaller Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal, Brenda Goh in Shanghai and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Beijing; Editing by Chris Reese)
Source: OANN
Chen Yulu, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), attends a news conference during the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China March 10, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 13, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Protectionism has harmed mutual trust among countries and limited the scope for multilateral cooperation, a vice governor of China’s central bank said on Saturday, taking a swipe at the Trump administration’s “America First” trade policies.
Chen Yulu, a vice governor at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), urged the International Monetary Fund to continue supporting a rules-based multilateral trade system as tariffs play “only a limited role” in fixing bilateral trade imbalances.
“The protectionism of some countries has harmed mutual trust among countries, limited the scope for multilateral cooperation, and impeded the willingness to achieve it,” Chen said in a statement to the IMF’s steering committee during the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.
“Unilateralism and protectionism can only exacerbate domestic imbalances and impair necessary structural adjustments, which can negatively affect the countries concerned as well as global growth,” he said.
Chen also said China will continue to implement “prudent monetary policy and proactive fiscal policy,” to ensure its economic growth remains stable.
The comments came as Beijing and Washington seek a deal to end a bitter trade war marked by tit-for-tat tariffs that have cost the world’s two largest economies billions of dollars, disrupted supply chains and rattled financial markets.
Rising hopes of an agreement recently have lifted global stock prices, though the IMF has warned that failure to reach an agreement could trigger a big market backlash.
“Uncertainties from trade frictions, the negative impact of tariff increases on trade, and the disruptions of global supply chains have gradually emerged,” Chen said.
“Trade friction can also dampen market confidence, which in turn amplifies financial market volatility and has an impact on economic growth,” he said.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China’s e-commerce company JD.com, speaks during an interview with Reuters after delivering goods for customers to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the company, in Beijing, China June 16, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
April 13, 2019
By Josh Horwitz and Brenda Goh
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Richard Liu, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc, has weighed in on an ongoing debate about the Chinese tech industry’s grueling overtime work culture, lamenting that years of growth had increased the number of “slackers” in his firm who are not his “brothers.”
Liu’s comments, which Chinese media said were posted on his personal WeChat feed on Friday, are the latest contribution to a growing discussion about work-life balance in the tech industry as the sector slows after years of breakneck growth.
They also come amid reports this week that the company is in the throes of widespread layoffs. Three company sources told Reuters that cuts began earlier this year and had become more extensive in recent weeks.
A JD.com spokesman confirmed the authenticity of Liu’s note. He declined to comment on layoffs but said some adjustments were happening as a normal part of business.
“JD.com is a competitive workplace that rewards initiative and hard work, which is consistent with our entrepreneurial roots,” the spokesman said. “We’re getting back to those roots as we seek, develop and reward staff who share the same hunger and values.”
Liu, who started the company that would become JD.com in 1998, in the note spoke about how in the firm’s earliest days he would set his alarm clock to wake him up every two hours to ensure he could offer his customers 24-hour service – a step he said was crucial to JD’s success.
“JD in the last four, five years has not made any eliminations, so the number of staff has expanded rapidly, the number of people giving orders has grown and grown, while the those who are working have fallen,” Liu wrote. “Instead, the number of slackers has rapidly grown!”
“If this carries on, JD will have no hope! And the company will only be heartlessly kicked out of the market! Slackers are not my brothers!” he added
The term he used, which is commonly translated in China as “slackers” can be directly translated as people who drift along aimlessly or waste time.
The contents of his note were reported by major Chinese media outlets such as financial magazine Caijing and the 21st Century Herald newspaper on Saturday as well as widely shared on Twitter-like platform Weibo, where it was read more than 400 million times.
CUTS AND SLOWDOWN
Three JD employees, who declined to be named as they were not permitted to speak to the media, told Reuters that morale at the company was low after several senior executive departures and layoffs across the firm in recent weeks. One said the cuts also affected vice-president level staff.
Tech website The Information reported this week that JD.com could cut up to 8 percent of its workforce. JD, which had more than 178,000 full-time employees at the end of last year, said the figure was incorrect.
“Now is kind of an inflection point, where too many people and too many business leaders or department leaders have been laid off. No one is safe,” one of the sources said.
He added that it had affected productivity in his department and that many workers checked Weibo, the stock markets or played games rather than focus on work.
The layoffs “are pretty much all JD employees can talk about,” he said.
The JD spokesman, when asked about morale, said most of the team was highly committed.
“Change – while uncomfortable for some – can be encouraging for most, who are dedicated to our shared future.”
JD, which is backed by Walmart Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and China’s Tencent Holdings, in February posted its lowest quarterly revenue growth rate since its 2015 initial public offering.
Other Chinese tech giants have lowered growth forecasts and cut staff bonuses amid the slowdown, which has driven calls for better work conditions for its workers.
The ‘996’ work schedule, which refers to a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. workday, six days a week, has in particular become the target of online debate and protests on some coding platforms, where workers have swapped examples of excessive overtime demands at some firms.
Alibaba Group founder and billionaire Jack Ma also weighed in on Friday, telling the company’s employees in a speech that the opportunity to work such hours was a “blessing”.
Liu said JD did not force its staff to work the “996” or even a “995” overtime schedule.
“But every person must have the desire to push oneself to the limit!” he said.
(Additional Reporting by Cate Cadell and Zhang Min in BEIJING; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a news conference following the closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
April 13, 2019
By Alexandra Harney
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is confident that it will meet its 2019 economic growth target of six percent to 6.5 percent, premier Li Keqiang said on Friday.
Speaking at a summit between China and Central and Eastern European countries in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, Li listed several positive indicators of economic activity and pledged to continue policies to help support growth.
Li said China would maintain the direction of its macroeconomic policies but would not move toward quantitative easing or flood the economy with bank bills.
A Reuters poll on Friday showed China’s economic growth is expected to slow to a near 30-year low of 6.2 percent this year, as sluggish demand at home and abroad weigh on activity despite a flurry of policy support measures.
(Reporting by Alexandra Harney; Additional reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Changyong Rhee, Director of Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks during a session at the “Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future” conference in New Delhi, India, March 12, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo
April 12, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Any trade deal between China and the United States should be a long-lasting one that is consistent with multilateralism and addresses structural factors like intellectual property, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Friday.
Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department, also said market optimism over the fate of trade talks between Washington and Beijing could mean that the failure to reach an agreement could trigger a sharp market reaction.
“What we’re worried is that if there is no agreement reached, the market can react quite negatively,” he told a news conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Changyong Rhee, Director of Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), speaks during a session at the “Advancing Asia: Investing for the Future” conference in New Delhi, India, March 12, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File Photo
April 12, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Any trade deal between China and the United States should be a long-lasting one that is consistent with multilateralism and addresses structural factors like intellectual property, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Friday.
Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department, also said market optimism over the fate of trade talks between Washington and Beijing could mean that the failure to reach an agreement could trigger a sharp market reaction.
“What we’re worried is that if there is no agreement reached, the market can react quite negatively,” he told a news conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
April 12, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/BRACE, BRACE
The focus is on the hotly anticipated U.S. results: First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to fall 2.5 percent on the year in what would be the first quarterly decline since 2016. But revenue is expected to rise 4.8 percent.
Those earnings will be crucial to see if the bull market can keep running. Some have argued the Federal Reserve’s patience on rate increases this year as well as stock buybacks will add fuel to the S&P’s rally. Also boosting the S&P 500 Index are the recent performance of the banks and financials, which had suffered more than the broader market in the fourth quarter, when recession fears scared investors away.
First out of the blocks was JPMorgan, which reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as higher interest income and gains in its advisory and debt underwriting business offset weakness in trading.
Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are all scheduled to release their results in days to come. Large banks have indicated that muted capital market activity at the start of the year caused by sluggish trading volumes will be a drag on overall results. Financials are expected to deliver 1.8 percent earnings growth, according to I/B/E/S Refinitiv.
Share performance may boil down to valuation. For the next 12 months, Goldman Sachs appears the cheapest, with investors paying $8.30 for every dollar in expected earnings, compared with $11.80 for Bank of New York Mellon. The former is the worst-performing stock over the last two years among U.S. banks.
For a graphic on First-Quarter Earnings, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2D73sU4
2/ARE YOU OK?
April manufacturing activity data will give a glimpse of the economic health of the United States and the euro zone. Chinese GDP data will provide an update on the health of the world’s second-largest economy.
Dismal March PMIs for the United States and euro zone sent shivers through markets. They were taken as ominous signs for the global economy as international trade tensions hurt factory output.
But robust factory data from Beijing offered hope that efforts to shore up China’s economy are kicking in, which injected further fuel to the global equity rally.
The IHS Markit flash Purchasing Managers’ Index due on April 18 should indicate if that optimism was justified — and if stocks have further upward momentum. China’s first-quarter GDP data is out on April 17.
Many investors say low expectations for first-quarter earnings, dovish central bank policies and hopes for Chinese stimulus and a trade truce between Washington and Beijing are largely priced into equity markets. With all that baked in and investors still scrambling for consensus on what happens over the rest of 2019, there’s a lot riding on that data.
For a graphic on PMI services, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2X3sX04
For a graphic on PMI manufacturing, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VEEWR9
3/TRY-ING TIMES
For all the relief in emerging markets that the Federal Reserve doesn’t expect to raise interest rates anytime soon and that commodity prices are hot again, there are still the troublesome twosome: The Turkish lira and Argentine peso.
The peso has slumped to fresh lows in the past 10 days, although the International Monetary Fund’s unlocking a $10.8 billion tranche of funds helped the battered currency to regain some of its footing.
Meanwhile, nine weeks of losses in the last 10 have the lira sliding back toward six to the dollar, the level that set alarm bells ringing last year.
Ankara’s economic reform plans — announced on Wednesday — failed to impress markets and investor meetings with Finance Minister Berat Albayrak at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings did little to change that. Ankara’s row with Washington over plans to buy a Russian missile defense system and declines in its FX reserves have only added to the concern of investors still smarting from last month’s pre-election move to temporarily freeze the London lira market.
For a graphic on Lira volatility, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2X4U1vO
4/POLLS, PINS AND NEEDLES
The world’s largest and third-largest democracies are going to the polls. Indonesia holds parliamentary and presidential elections on April 17. India’s elections are spread over seven phases and 39 days.
Both countries face similar issues around anti-incumbency and flailing economic growth. Betting on continuity, investors have pumped money into their markets, driving up bonds and stocks.
Polls in Indonesia suggest President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, who faces his opponent from 2014 once again, will not only win re-election but will also emerge with a stronger coalition. Indonesian markets have also always scored well in election years.
So it’s India that investors should be sweating over. Even if the February tensions with neighbor Pakistan have given Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his coalition an edge, the risks are that he will lose his majority and may cobble together a new partnership that could slow down reforms.
For a graphic on JKSE in election years, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CFzUMY
5/TRUNCATED TRADING
It’s the start truncated trading – the first of four consecutive shortened trading weeks, as a series of public holidays in Europe begins with Easter. Japanese markets will also be closed for a string of holidays in late April.
The truncated weeks come just as volatility in financial markets has slumped. In equities, the VIX, known as the “fear index”, is close to its lowest levels since October. Foreign exchange price swings have fallen to their lowest for several years, according to the Deutsche Bank Currency Volatility Index.
Even the British pound, long the vent for Brexit-related angst, has turned increasingly calm — and traders are not expecting many big moves for sterling in the months ahead after this week’s six-month Brexit delay.
Caught between mixed economic data releases of recent weeks, a postponement to figuring out how Britain will extricate itself from the European Union until as late as October and elusive progress in the Sino-U.S. trade war have left markets treading water.
But with fewer traders at their desks on fewer days, the rest of April will see heightened risks of a spike in volatility, or even flash crashes, should a surprise hit markets just as calmness descends.
For a graphic on Market volatility, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DaIljM
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Tommy Wilkes and Marc Jones in London, Jennifer Ablan in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; editing by Larry King)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: President and Chief Executive Officer of Volvo Hakan Samuelsson poses near the new XC40 model during official presentation in Milan, Italy, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo
April 12, 2019
By Esha Vaish
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Volvo Cars has started producing its XC40 compact crossover SUV in China to bump up capacity and cater for growing demand, the Swedish carmaker said on Friday.
As the cost impact of Washington’s trade war with Beijing spreads, Volvo has been shuffling manufacturing facilities for its models. The dispute has been squeezing capacity at Volvo’s Ghent plant, the only site where the XC40 – the 2018 European Car of the Year – is currently produced.
Volvo, which is owned by China’s Geely, said that from April 8 it was also being manufactured in Luqiao, south of Shanghai.
“Demand for the XC40 has exceeded our most optimistic expectations,” Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson. “Building (it)… in Luqiao creates extra capacity, adds flexibility to our global manufacturing network and is a clear proofpoint of our strategy to ‘build where you sell’.”
The model has sold more than 100,000 units since its launch in late 2017.
The XC40 is based on a platform Volvo developed with Geely designed to share the costs of developing and manufacturing a competitive vehicle.
The platform, called Compact Modular Architecture, is shared by vehicles produced by sister brands Lynk & Co and Polestar, with Geely also planning to base a new Coupe SUV on it.
Automakers are going through one of their most uncertain periods, hit by trade wars, rising costs for developing electric cars and an industry downturn that has dented even the most profitable brands.
The Luqiao plant, owned by Geely and operated by Volvo, currently builds the 01 SUV sold by car subscription-focused brand Lynk & Co. Polestar, Volvo and Geely’s electric performance brand, said separately on Friday that starting next year it would also use Luqiao to produce Polestar 2, its first fully electric sedan that is intended to rival Tesla’s mass market Model 3.
Geely has forecast flat sales in 2019 due to uncertainty about domestic demand, while Volvo has said it expects margins to remain under pressure.
(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm; editing by John Stonestreet)
Source: OANN
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