Good evening everyone. Despite miraculously halving their losses in the last 20 minutes of trading, Chinese stocks still had their worst month in six years, with both Shanghai and Shenzhen losing over 14% this July. Year to date however, Shanghai is still up 13.3%, while Shenzhen is up almost 50%. They lost 1.1% and 0.82% respectively in today’s session. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index managed to climb 0.56%, ending the month at 24,636.28 while over in Japan, the Nikkei Average edged up 0.3% to 20,585.24.
And now for the news:
The hunt for “malicious short-sellers” goes beyond borders. In the latest twist in the malicious short-seller saga, the CSRC is now requesting trading records from Singapore and Hong Kong. Reuters
The SNB had a pretty rough six months. Highlighting the perils of having a safe-haven currency, the Swiss National Bank reported a $51.8 billion loss for the first half of the year, largely thanks to massive devaluations in its currency positions against the swissie. WSJ (paywall)
No bailout for you, Greece. Continuing their hard stance on reforming Greece’s debt, the IMF has disqualified Greece from receiving a third bailout, citing the nation’s “high debt levels and poor record of implementing reforms.” They will re-enter talks however once Greece has “agreed on a comprehensive set of reforms” while EU leaders “agreed on debt relief.” Financial Times (paywall)
The boys are back in town. Great news! After quitting (or in Clarkson’s case, losing) their jobs following “the fracas,” Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are now heading to Amazon’s new streaming service. BBC News
Photo: Bernd Thaller