China Pumps Up Support for Country’s Stock Markets
Kanebridge News
    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,764,302 (+0.48%)       Melbourne $1,066,697 (+0.05%)       Brisbane $1,181,591 (+0.51%)       Adelaide $987,749 (-0.14%)       Perth $1,041,108 (-0.48%)       Hobart $802,593 (+0.38%)       Darwin $826,337 (-2.56%)       Canberra $1,001,004 (+0.17%)       National $1,157,291 (+0.14%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $793,689 (-0.41%)       Melbourne $524,006 (-0.53%)       Brisbane $754,229 (-3.72%)       Adelaide $563,099 (-0.55%)       Perth $593,974 (+3.43%)       Hobart $554,111 (+2.35%)       Darwin $460,457 (-0.56%)       Canberra $482,673 (+0.62%)       National $612,602 (-0.54%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 12,286 (+165)       Melbourne 14,524 (+136)       Brisbane 7,377 (+39)       Adelaide 2,517 (+59)       Perth 5,494 (+86)       Hobart 863 (+3)       Darwin 134 (-5)       Canberra 1,200 (+68)       National 44,395 (+551)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,355 (+30)       Melbourne 7,113 (+60)       Brisbane 1,331 (-14)       Adelaide 391 (+7)       Perth 1,174 (+23)       Hobart 175 (+2)       Darwin 228 (-13)       Canberra 1,190 (+19)       National 20,957 (+114)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $580 ($0)       Brisbane $670 ($0)       Adelaide $630 (+$5)       Perth $700 ($0)       Hobart $598 (+$3)       Darwin $750 (-$30)       Canberra $700 ($0)       National $686 (-$4)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 ($0)       Melbourne $590 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $540 ($0)       Perth $650 ($0)       Hobart $475 (+$15)       Darwin $600 ($0)       Canberra $580 ($0)       National $614 (+$1)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 5,345 (-110)       Melbourne 7,556 (-112)       Brisbane 4,070 (+34)       Adelaide 1,534 (-9)       Perth 2,414 (-24)       Hobart 164 (-13)       Darwin 86 (+5)       Canberra 433 (+3)       National 21,602 (-226)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 7,762 (-17)       Melbourne 6,081 (+25)       Brisbane 2,126 (+27)       Adelaide 431 (+3)       Perth 667 (-79)       Hobart 84 (+4)       Darwin 186 (+14)       Canberra 643 (-7)       National 17,980 (-30)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 2.36% (↓)       Melbourne 2.83% (↓)       Brisbane 2.95% (↓)     Adelaide 3.32% (↑)      Perth 3.50% (↑)      Hobart 3.87% (↑)        Darwin 4.72% (↓)       Canberra 3.64% (↓)       National 3.08% (↓)            UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND       Sydney 4.91% (↑)      Melbourne 5.85% (↑)      Brisbane 4.48% (↑)      Adelaide 4.99% (↑)        Perth 5.69% (↓)     Hobart 4.46% (↑)      Darwin 6.78% (↑)        Canberra 6.25% (↓)     National 5.21% (↑)             HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND         Sydney 1.2% (↓)       Melbourne 1.4% (↓)     Brisbane 1.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 1.0% (↑)        Hobart 0.4% (↓)       Darwin 0.6% (↓)       Canberra 1.4% (↓)     National 1.0% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 1.3% (↑)      Melbourne 2.3% (↑)        Brisbane 1.2% (↓)       Adelaide 0.9% (↓)       Perth 1.0% (↓)       Hobart 1.2% (↓)     Darwin 1.1% (↑)      Canberra 2.6% (↑)        National 1.4% (↓)            AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND       Sydney 28.0 (↑)      Melbourne 27.9 (↑)        Brisbane 28.3 (↓)       Adelaide 25.4 (↓)     Perth 32.9 (↑)      Hobart 26.1 (↑)      Darwin 32.1 (↑)        Canberra 27.1 (↓)     National 28.5 (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND       Sydney 28.1 (↑)      Melbourne 28.2 (↑)        Brisbane 24.5 (↓)     Adelaide 24.4 (↑)        Perth 36.8 (↓)       Hobart 26.9 (↓)       Darwin 34.3 (↓)     Canberra 38.2 (↑)        National 30.2 (↓)           
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China Pumps Up Support for Country’s Stock Markets

The latest round of policy boosts comes as stocks start the year on a soft note

By TRACY QU
Thu, Jan 23, 2025 4:14pmGrey Clock 2 min

China’s securities regulator is ramping up support for the country’s embattled equities markets, announcing measures to funnel capital into Chinese stocks.

The aim: to draw in more medium to long-term investment from major funds and insurers and steady the equities market.

The latest round of policy boosts comes as Chinese stocks start the year on a soft note, with investors reluctant to add exposure to the market amid lingering economic woes at home and worries about potential tariffs by U.S. President Trump. Sharply higher tariffs on Chinese exports would threaten what has been one of the sole bright spots for the economy over the past year.

Thursday’s announcement builds on a raft of support from regulators and the central bank, as officials vow to get the economy back on track and markets humming again.

State-owned insurers and mutual funds are expected to play a pivotal role in the process of stabilizing the stock market, financial regulators led by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Finance said at a press briefing.

Insurers will be encouraged to invest 30% of their annual premiums earning from new policies into China’s A-shares market, said Xiao Yuanqi, vice minister at the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

At least 100 billion yuan, equivalent to $13.75 billion, of insurance funds will be invested in stocks in a pilot program in the first six months of the year, the regulators said. Half of that amount is due to be approved before the Lunar New Year holiday starting next week.

China’s central bank chimed in with some support for the stock market too, saying at the press conference that it will continue to lower requirements for companies to get loans for stock buybacks. It will also increase the scale of liquidity tools to support stock buyback “at the proper time.”

That comes after People’s Bank of China in October announced a program aiming to inject around 800 billion yuan into the stock market, including a relending program for financial firms to borrow from the PBOC to acquire shares.

Thursday’s news helped buoy benchmark indexes in mainland China, with insurance stocks leading the gains. The Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.0% at the midday break, extending opening gains. Among insurers, Ping An Insurance advanced 3.1% and China Pacific Insurance added 3.0%.

Kai Wang, Asia equity market strategist at Morningstar, thinks the latest moves could encourage investment in some of China’s bigger listed companies.

“Funds could end up increasing positions towards less volatile, larger domestic companies. This could end up benefiting some of the large-cap names we cover such as [Kweichow] Moutai or high-dividend stocks,” Wang said.

Shares in Moutai, China’s most valuable liquor brand, were last trading flat.

The moves build on past efforts to inject more liquidity into the market and encourage investment flows.

Earlier this month, the country’s securities regulator said it will work with PBOC to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy tools and strengthen market-stabilization mechanisms. That followed a slew of other measures introduced last year, including the relaxation of investment restrictions to draw in more foreign participation in the A-share market.

So far, the measures have had some positive effects on equities, but analysts say more stimulus is needed to revive investor confidence in the economy.

Prior enthusiasm for support measures has hardly been enduring, with confidence easily shaken by weak economic data or disappointment over a lack of details on stimulus pledges. It remains to be seen how long the latest market cheer will last.

Mainland markets will be closed for the Lunar New Year holiday from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4.



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More Big Companies Bet They Can Still Grow Without Hiring

JPMorgan Chase has a ‘strong bias’ against adding staff, while Walmart is keeping its head count flat. Major employers are in a new, ultra lean era.

By CHIP CUTTER
Mon, Oct 27, 2025 3 min

It’s the corporate gamble of the moment: Can you run a company, increasing sales and juicing profits, without adding people?

American employers are increasingly making the calculation that they can keep the size of their teams flat—or shrink through layoffs—without harming their businesses.

Part of that thinking is the belief that artificial intelligence will be used to pick up some of the slack and automate more processes. Companies are also hesitant to make any moves in an economy many still describe as uncertain.

JPMorgan Chase’s chief financial officer told investors recently that the bank now has a “very strong bias against having the reflective response” to hire more people for any given need. Aerospace and defense company RTX boasted last week that its sales rose even without adding employees.

Goldman Sachs , meanwhile, sent a memo to staffers this month saying the firm “will constrain head count growth through the end of the year” and reduce roles that could be more efficient with AI. Walmart , the nation’s largest private employer, also said it plans to keep its head count roughly flat over the next three years, even as its sales grow.

“If people are getting more productive, you don’t need to hire more people,” Brian Chesky , Airbnb’s chief executive, said in an interview. “I see a lot of companies pre-emptively holding the line, forecasting and hoping that they can have smaller workforces.”

Airbnb employs around 7,000 people, and Chesky says he doesn’t expect that number to grow much over the next year. With the help of AI, he said he hopes that “the team we already have can get considerably more work done.”

Many companies seem intent on embracing a new, ultralean model of staffing, one where more roles are kept unfilled and hiring is treated as a last resort. At Intuit , every time a job comes open, managers are pushed to justify why they need to backfill it, said Sandeep Aujla , the company’s chief financial officer. The new rigor around hiring helps combat corporate bloat.

“That typical behavior that settles in—and we’re all guilty of it—is, historically, if someone leaves, if Jane Doe leaves, I’ve got to backfill Jane,” Aujla said in an interview. Now, when someone quits, the company asks: “Is there an opportunity for us to rethink how we staff?”

Intuit has chosen not to replace certain roles in its finance, legal and customer-support functions, he said. In its last fiscal year, the company’s revenue rose 16% even as its head count stayed flat, and it is planning only modest hiring in the current year.

The desire to avoid hiring or filling jobs reflects a growing push among executives to see a return on their AI spending. On earnings calls, mentions of ROI and AI investments are increasing, according to an analysis by AlphaSense, reflecting heightened interest from analysts and investors that companies make good on the millions they are pouring into AI.

Many executives hope that software coding assistants and armies of digital agents will keep improving—even if the current results still at times leave something to be desired.

The widespread caution in hiring now is frustrating job seekers and leading many employees within organizations to feel stuck in place, unable to ascend or take on new roles, workers and bosses say.

Inside many large companies, HR chiefs also say it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict just how many employees will be needed as technology takes on more of the work.

Some employers seem to think that fewer employees will actually improve operations.

Meta Platforms this past week said it is cutting 600 jobs in its AI division, a move some leaders hailed as a way to cut down on bureaucracy.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Alexandr Wang , Meta’s chief AI officer, wrote in a memo to staff seen by The Wall Street Journal.

Though layoffs haven’t been widespread through the economy, some companies are making cuts. Target on Thursday said it would cut about 1,000 corporate employees, and close another 800 open positions, totaling around 8% of its corporate workforce. Michael Fiddelke , Target’s incoming CEO, said in a memo sent to staff that too “many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life.”

A range of other employers, from the electric-truck maker Rivian to cable and broadband provider Charter Communications , have announced their own staff cuts in recent weeks, too.

Operating with fewer people can still pose risks for companies by straining existing staffers or hurting efforts to develop future leaders, executives and economists say. “It’s a bit of a double-edged sword,” said Matthew Martin , senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “You want to keep your head count costs down now—but you also have to have an eye on the future.”

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