China Financial News

AstraZeneca said on Friday it will spend $2.5 billion on a research and development hub in Beijing, as the drugmaker scrambles to revive business in its second-biggest market after scandals including the arrest of its China president last year. Chief executive Pascal Soriot was in Beijing and met with the city's mayor to reveal the investment, along with two licensing deals with Chinese companies, saying they all showed the company's commitment to the world's No. 2 economy. «This $2.5 billion investment reflects our belief in the world-class life sciences ecosystem in Beijing, the extensive opportunities that exist for collaboration and access to talent, and our continued commitment to China,» Soriot said in a statement. The R&D centre «will partner with the cutting-edge biology and AI science in Beijing and be a critical part of our global efforts to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide,» Soriot said. The Chinese government has launched several investigations into AstraZeneca's executives and activities in the country, where it has invested billions of dollars to build factories and license experimental drug candidates from Chinese biotech firms.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell rejected a report in the The New York Times which claimed that billionaire Elon Musk would be briefed about U.S. military plans against China on Friday. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Parnell invalidated the magazine story while asking the NYT to remove its article.

The disruption could go on for days, Heathrow said, as it warned passengers not to travel to the airport «under any circumstances» until it reopens. More than 1,300 flights have been affected, tracking website Flightradar24 said, and passengers have been told not to travel to the airport until further notice. Thousands of passengers faced inconvenience after the power outage and their travel plans were thrown into disarray after Heathrow Airport shut on Friday. Many passengers who were already in the air spoke about the massive disruption that ensued after they were diverted to other airports, or turned back to where they had departed from.

United States President Donald Trump is invoking emergency powers to boost the ability of the U.S. to produce critical minerals — and potentially coal — as part of a broad effort to ramp up the development of domestic natural resources and make the country less reliant on foreign imports.

Canada could soon face a recession that would extend throughout the rest of the year as United States President Donald Trump’s tariff war upends economies and trade around the world, according to a new analysis by Desjardins Group.

Chinese equities this week — the largest weekly inflow since October 2024 — as blockbuster rallies in electric vehicle giant BYD and Chinese AI firms reignited confidence in China’s market rebound, driving global fund managers to ramp up their bets on Asia’s biggest economy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Attempts to build a global auto empire hark back to the 1910s and 1920s, when Henry Ford set up factories in Britain and Germany for the Model T, and General Motors responded by buying foreign carmakers. A century later, this ambition remains at risk of being run off the road.

Formula 1 returns to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix this Sunday, the second race of the 2025 season. The 2025 Chinese Grand Prix will be broadcast in the United States on ESPN. Viewers in other countries can check their local listings for coverage.

Jim O'Neill, Former Economist, Goldman Sachs, says for the rest of this decade, it is quite likely that US equity markets are going to underperform much of the rest of the world. A more positive way to put it is, the rest of the world which was very cheap, particularly Europe and to some degree China, is probably going to outperform the US and of course that has already been the case in the short two-and-a-half months of 2025 so far. While the period between now and April 2nd will probably see some near-term recovery of the dollar, O’Neill does not think that the combination of what the US is trying to do is at all good for the sustainability of the dollar and he thinks this time next year, the dollar will be a bit weaker against major currencies around the world. We are talking at a time when nobody knows what is coming. All we know is that American markets have reversed and there are fears of a genuine slowdown in the United States. Investors are moving out of the long dollar trade. What is the big headline of March 2025 for financial markets? Jim O'Neill: As I have discussed with you in December, you have to be very careful of a very strong consensus when some of the underlying factors are not so clear-cut and I was quite sceptical on the immediate euphoria of Trump being elected as this was going to further accentuate so-called American exceptionalism and the reality that we have seen over the first 60 to 70 days the US is not exceptional.

Hangor-class submarine to Pakistan, strengthening their long-standing military alliance. The submarine, launched in Wuhan, China, is part of a $5 billion deal for eight such vessels, aimed at enhancing Pakistan’s naval prowess in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Armed with cutting-edge weaponry and sensor technology, the Hangor-class submarines signify a shift in regional maritime security dynamics. This naval cooperation aligns with China’s expanding strategic influence, particularly around Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan, a linchpin of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Beijing’s support to Islamabad extends beyond submarines—Pakistan has also received advanced naval frigates, reconnaissance drones, and fighter jets from its closest ally.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Shares of steel producers such as SAIL Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd, and JSW Steel Ltd are in focus after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) recommended a safeguard duty on steel imports amid rising global protectionism. The DGTR’s proposal, submitted to the finance ministry, suggests a 12% duty on most steel grades for 200 days, with exemptions for imports priced above $675 per tonne for hot-rolled coil (HRC), $824 per tonne for cold-rolled coil (CRC), and $964 per tonne for coated steel.

Since China's DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley by releasing AI models comparable to its U.S. competitors but developed at a fraction of the cost, Chinese investors have been on the lookout for the next domestic startup with the potential to upend the global tech order. Some have pointed to Manus. The company went viral on X a few weeks ago by releasing what it claimed to be the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.

Alton Aviation Consultancy. Bullish on aviation prospects in India, Ng said the country, which contributes approximately 10 per cent of Asia Pacific's domestic and international air traffic demand, has already returned to pre-pandemic levels. «Such growing demand in turn supports India's massive aviation development programmes including setting up of 150 airports across the country,» Ng told PTI on Friday. He further noted that «India's passenger traffic is expected to grow at a strong pace of 7 per cent in 2025, supported by an order book of nearly 1,900 aircraft among airlines based in the country.»

Like the earlier month, the fortnight (ending March 15) sell-off affected nearly all sectors in the market, with the exception of metals. Metal stocks stood out as they attracted investments worth Rs 1,100 crore, making them the only sector to buck the trend. This was not the case in the preceding period.

BEIJING — UBS analysts on Wednesday became the latest to raise expectations that China's struggling real estate market is close to stabilizing.

The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones. The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but would most likely include stealthiness, advanced sensors and cutting-edge engines. Lockheed and Boeing are competing for the winner-take-all engineering and manufacturing development contract, worth more than $20 billion. The winner will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract's multi-decade lifetime. For Boeing, a win would mark a sharp reversal of fortunes for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business; a loss could be devastating. A victory for Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor, would keep its high-end offerings — it also makes the stealthy F-35 — on an upward trajectory. An Air Force spokesperson and Boeing and Lockheed representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Oil prices rose in early Asian trading on Friday, and were set for their second consecutive weekly gains, after fresh U.S. sanctions on Iran and a new OPEC+ plan for seven members to cut output raised bets on tightening supply. Brent crude futures climbed 42 cents, or 0.6%, to $72.40 per barrel by 0026 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 45 cents, or 0.6%, to $68.52 a barrel.

Donald Trump has revealed the «only thing» he «totally admired» about his predecessor- former US President Joe Biden. Trump hilariously roasted Joe Biden's sleeping habits during a recent interview with Fox News. Trump was speaking with Laura Ingraham who is the host of Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle’ in which he discussed several policy matters.

They say, ‘Home is where the heart is’. When it comes to money, however, Devina Mehra, founder and chairperson of securities firm First Global, strongly feels that part of it should be parked outside of the home country.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Nvidia is doing just fine. Lately, it has seemed harder to convince the world of that simple truth.