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An employee in the warehouse of Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the logistics affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, in Wuxi, China's Jiangsu province in November, 2020.
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
China’s economic recovery has set it apart in the past year, sending Chinese stocks soaring, and drawing investors. But U.S. investors have had to grapple with increasing risks, including Beijing’s heightened scrutiny of its internet giants, as well as a flurry of U.S. executive orders aimed at restricting U.S. investment in some Chinese companies.
Questions about the state of U.S.-China relations as the Biden administration comes in and the fate of measures introduced in recent weeks raises questions of how U.S. investors should proceed, even as strategists and large investors advocate for China to be part of long-term portfolios.

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U.S. stock indexes gave up modest earlier gains to slide into the red in the final hour of trading on Thursday, to close slightly down on the day. Investors, economists, and political analysts were all looking ahead to an address by President-elect Joe Biden scheduled for Thursday evening, in which he is set to unveil his economic agenda and plans for further U.S. stimulus.
The Biden team’s initial proposal is reportedly in the $1 trillion to $2 trillion range. U.S. government bond yields continued to rise on Thursday. Also...
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U.

VMware,
Pat Gelsinger, effective Feb. 15.
Since Swan took over in 2019, Intel has divested from non-core assets while making acquisitions that
strengthened its core business. But as
Barron’s notes, “Swan doesn’t have semiconductors in his DNA and is known as more of a software and finance executive than a man with deep technical expertise.”
Gelsinger, on the other hand, is
a prominent technical expert in the chip industry. He’s a trained engineer who has written a microprocessor programming book, holds several patents, helped create Wi-Fi technology and spent three decades at Intel earlier in his career.
“After careful consideration, the board concluded that now is the right time to make this leadership change to draw on Pat’s technology and engineering expertise during this critical period of transformation at Intel,” Intel chairman Omar Ishrak said in a statement.

Americans Won’t Be Banned From Investing in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu
Nine other Chinese companies will be added to Pentagon’s Chinese military companies list
President-elect Joe Biden has sent signals that the U.S. will remain tough on China, from trade to technology. WSJ’s Jonathan Cheng explains the new administration’s policy approach and how China might respond. Photo: Lintao Zhang/Xinhua/Associated Press
By
Updated Jan. 13, 2021 5:32 pm ET
The U.S. government is expected to let Americans continue to invest in Chinese technology giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., after weighing the firms’ alleged ties to China’s military against the potential economic impact of banning them.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
China unveiled new rules on Saturday, pushing back against a spate of U.S. executive orders that have blacklisted Chinese companies and restricted their access to U.S. technologies. It’s the latest reminder for investors that U.S.-China tensions are here to stay.
China’s Ministry of Commerce unveiled an order Saturday for “counteracting unjustified extraterritorial application of foreign laws.” The rules establish a vague and open-ended regime aimed at dissuading the U.S. and other foreign governments from adopting unilateral sanctions or applying them against Chinese entities and individuals, Lester Ross, partner-in-charge of law firm WilmerHale’s Beijing office, told

The stock exchange’s reversal was the latest sign of confusion for investors and companies as they navigate a series of broad China-related executive orders.

Stocks Rise to Records as Tech Shares Recover
Investors look beyond U.S. political discord as Nasdaq advances after Wednesday decline
A congressional exercise in the peaceful transfer of power devolved into deadly chaos when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. Hours after the riots, Congress reconvened and certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire
By
Updated Jan. 7, 2021 4:40 pm ET
Political unrest in Washington didn’t dent the stock market’s ongoing rally Thursday, with shares of U.S. companies big and small closing at fresh records.
Investors largely looked past Wednesday afternoon’s violent clash between pro-Trump protesters and law enforcement in the Capitol building, instead focusing on what the shift of political power from Republicans to Democrats means for the market.

Jan. 3, 2021 10:00 am ET
It is easy to spot bubbles. Too easy: They seem to be almost everywhere, almost all the time. Worse still for those of us who try to spot excess, much of the stuff that was labeled frothy in recent years went on to make big money in 2020 for those who bought into it anyway.
The question for investors: Were the bubble calls just wrong? Or are we in a new era of wild speculation driven by cheap money that must inevitably come to an end?
I lean toward the latter. But the stunning performance of so many bubble stocks this past year shows that even if this turns out to be right eventually, there is plenty of scope to be horribly wrong in the meantime.

By Craig Mellow
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NIO EP9
Courtesy of NIO
You think Tesla (ticker: TSLA) stock had a good year? Shares in Elon Musk’s electric-car dynamo jumped a mere 670% during 2020. Chinese competitor Nio (NIO) posted an 11-fold increase. 
EVs aren’t the only sector where emerging market stars left U.S. names in the dust. Amazon.com’s (AMZN) 75% advance lagged Latin American e-commerce sensation MercadoLibre’s (MELI) 200%. Southeast Asian online marketplace Sea (SE) climbed fourfold. Chinese social-media power Tencent (700: Hong Kong) outperformed Facebook (FB) 50% to 30%. ...
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Emerging Markets Have Plenty of Hot Stocks. They Don’t Come Cheap.

Updated Aug. 14, 2020 8:35 pm ET
Tim Sweeney, chief executive of the company behind the popular videogame “Fortnite,” is now spearheading a battle that app developers have waged for years against two of the world’s biggest technology companies.
And he is uniquely positioned to lead that fight against Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Mr. Sweeney and his company Epic Games Inc. have deep pockets. He is worth more than $8.5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, and his company is valued at $17.3 billion, landing investments from companies including Walt Disney Co. , Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Sony Corp.
Unlike others who have challenged Apple and Google, Epic is closely held, meaning it faces less pressure from shareholders. And “Fortnite” boasts a massive and loyal user base—with more than 350 million registered users world-wide—that has been nudged to show their dismay about the situation on social media.

Meryl Witmer |
Photograph by Jeff Brown
When Barron’s gathers some of Wall Street’s best minds—as we do every January for our annual Roundtable—we expect some consensus, some disagreement, and one or two off-the-wall notions that sometimes turn out to be surprisingly prescient. This year did not disappoint.
Investors entered 2020 with the financial markets heading higher and a lot of optimism about the economy. Then the latest flare-up in the long conflict with Iran reminded everyone of the many geopolitical risks lurking under the seemingly placid surface of the...
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There’s Almost No Chance of a Recession This Year, Experts Say. Here’s Why.

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Photograph by China Daily/Reuters
Insurance is a stodgy business in many parts of the world—but not in China. The industry is growing at a double-digit pace and improving profitability, and it sits at the center of some of the latest technology innovations around artificial intelligence and fintech. Ping An Group, one of the world’s largest insurers and China’s second-largest, is well-positioned to capitalize on that growth.
Rising incomes in China and a rapidly aging population mean growing demand for life, property, and casualty insurance. China’s premium...
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Chinese Insurer Ping An Is Betting Big on Tech. Here’s How That Will Boost Its Stock.

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Illustration by Michael Parkin
China is the 800-pound panda in any conversation about what is going on in the world today. The nation dominates the headlines, is the most-cited reason for sleeplessness among corporate executives, and puzzles investors daily. China looms particularly large for investors in the emerging markets: It represents an uncomfortably outsize stake in most portfolios. And fund managers are getting nervous.
The challenges are daunting. China is growing at its slowest pace in decades—a slowdown that began before the trade war. In past...
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Emerging Market Funds Try to Sidestep China
China is the 800-pound panda in any conversation about what is going on in the world today.