China's trade surplus narrows in December

Eliza Popescu — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:17:00 EST

Filed under: International Markets, Forecasts, Bad News, China, Morgan Stanley (MS), Economic Data

According to the Chinese customs bureau, China's December trade surplus narrowed in December. With the country's trade surplus shrinking, and its money supply narrowing, we may finally be seeing signs that the country's massive economic growth may be coming to an end.

The Beijing central bank reported the November trade surplus fell to $22.7 billion from $26.2 billion. M2, which is the broadest measure of money supply, gained 16.7% to 40.3 trillion yuan ($5.55 trillion) from a year earlier. It was the smallest rise in seven months.

China is beginning to feel the effects of recent yuan gains, weaker global expansion and cuts to export-tax incentives. As a result, its exports rose by the slowest pace in two years. As we discussed, China still plans to strengthen credit controls to avoid financial problems and a possible inflation surge. Wang Tao, an economist at Bank of America Corp. in Beijing, said that "China needs to tighten monetary policy further, given that new loan growth may rebound' as recent signs shows that the country's "economic expansion may have peaked last year."

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China's trade surplus narrows in December originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before the bell 05-12-06: AAPL, GOOG, YHOO, EBAY

Amey Stone — Fri, 12 May 2006 08:17:00 EST

Filed under: Before the Bell, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY)

Updated 9:15 a.m.

So much for the Dow beating its record. A day ago it looked like the Dow could reach an all time high of 11,723. But this morning stock futures are down sharply and yesterday the Dow fell 142 points.

The worries plaguing stocks now seem (at least to me), to be problems that have been around for a while -- the falling dollar, higher oil, higher gold, and the potential for the Fed to keep raising interest rates -- and traders weren't worrying so much about them just days ago

What seems new -- and potentially dangerous to the U.S. economy -- is growing tension with China over its currency. The Treasury decided yesterday not to label China a "currency manipulator." Seems like a smart move, especially after reading this story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "China Sans Manipulator Tag May Let Yuan Rise."

A rising U.S. trade gap with the rest of the world could heighten political pressures. But the latest trade figures, reported today at 8:30 a.m., provided better-than-expected news. The April trade gap was $62 billion when ecomomists thought it would be $67 billion. Earlier today China reported a trade surplus of $10.5 billion in April.

Also today we'll see a measure of consumer confidence developed by the University of Michigan. It will be closely watched as investors worry about the health of the consumer given higher gas prices.

Here's a look at some key Blogging Stocks this morning:

Apple (AAPL) shares are down 34 cents to $67.81 as of 9:12 a.m. French legislators are weighing a new law that would require Apple to open up iTunes to other music players.

Google (GOOG) is down $1.89 to $385.11 as of 9:13 a.m. Shareholders voted yesterday to let Google's founders hold onto the bulk of voting power. Read our live blog of yesterday's meeting.

Yahoo! (YHOO) is down 20 cents to $30.79 as of 9:12 a.m. CEO Semel spoke about pressures to provide information about users to Chinese authorities.

eBay (EBAY) is down 7 cents to $31.95 as of 9:13 a.m.

Before the bell 05-12-06: AAPL, GOOG, YHOO, EBAY originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 May 2006 08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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