Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Asia
Michele Bullock, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, at the AusPayNet Summit in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 12, 2023.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergGood morning. China tightens trading restrictions. Treasuries saw their biggest two-day sell off in months. Investors await a rate decision from Australia’s central bank. Here is what’s moving markets. — Isabelle Lee
China is tightening trading restrictions on domestic institutional investors as well as some offshore units as authorities fight to stem the rout in stocks. Officials imposed caps on some brokerages’ cross-border total return swaps with clients, limiting a channel that can be used by China-based investors to short Hong Kong stocks. At the same time, some Chinese brokers that use the channel to buy mainland shares for their offshore units were told not to reduce their positions. Meanwhile, investors keep yanking cash from US-listed ETFs tracking Chinese stocks.