China’s listed companies announced the most share buybacks in almost a year last month as the escalating war in Iran drove down stock prices. A total of 43 Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed firms pledged in March to repurchase a combined 25.6 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) of shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was the largest monthly total since 67.6 billion yuan of buybacks were annou...
China’s listed companies announced the most share buybacks in almost a year last month as the escalating war in Iran drove down stock prices. A total of 43 Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed firms pledged in March to repurchase a combined 25.6 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) of shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That was the largest monthly total since 67.6 billion yuan of buybacks were announced in April last year when shares tumbled after US President Donald Trump unveiled higher global tariffs. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 6.5% in March, its biggest monthly decline more than four years, as the Iran war pushed up oil prices and sparked concern about slowing global growth. That was still less than the 7.4% decline suffered by the MSCI All Country World Index , leading some investors to consider China something of a haven from the crisis. Home-appliance maker Midea Group Co. led the buyback announcements among mainland-listed firms, pledging to repurchase as much as 13 billion yuan of its stock. Midea shares jumped nearly 6% in Shenzhen following the news. Another appliance maker, Haier Smart Home Co. , said it planned to buy back 6 billion yuan of shares, while Juneyao Airlines Co. said it was aiming for 500 million yuan. Hong Kong-listed companies also stepped up actual buybacks. Aluminum-product manufacturer China Hongqiao Group Ltd.’s made HK$1.8 billion ($230 million) of repurchases, while toy-wholesaler Pop Mart International Group Ltd. bought back HK$1.2 billion of shares during the month, though its stock still slid almost 40% in March. Still, buyback pledges don’t guarantee execution. Chinese companies aren’t required to complete the full amount announced, and some programs are allowed to lapse once self-imposed deadlines pass. A number of the repurchase plans unveiled in April 2025 were less than 50% completed, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
SiyueSteuber/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The recent presentation from Adobe ( ADBE ) has not been enough to stop the downward drift the stock has been in for more than two years now. As of today, we have a price of $240 per share, which represents a destruction in market capitalization that, in my opinion, has not been driven by a single catalyst but rather by the combination of different fa...
SiyueSteuber/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The recent presentation from Adobe ( ADBE ) has not been enough to stop the downward drift the stock has been in for more than two years now. As of today, we have a price of $240 per share, which represents a destruction in market capitalization that, in my opinion, has not been driven by a single catalyst but rather by the combination of different factors and the broader market context, making it difficult to sustain the 40x earnings valuation it once reached. Data by YCharts And to begin with, if none of us were allowed to check a stock price, and we were only shown the numbers of a company generating $26B in ARR growing at 10.9% YoY, with 89% gross margins and $2.96B in OCF this last Q1, I would think of a price close to highs in a normal market environment. Unfortunately, this is not the reality, and that is why I have decided to give my view on ADBE’s current situation, as well as its potential upside after analyzing the numbers and, more importantly, what the price is not telling us. Is Creative Cloud Being Replaced? My view is no, if I look at the core workflows of professionals, although I do detect some compression in market share that I would like to explain. For me, there is no verifiable evidence that AI tools are replacing the full professional pipeline of Photoshop, Premiere Pro, or Illustrator. Over the past 5 years, the number of paid subscribers has grown from around 21M to 41M , and ARR also grew 11.5% in FY25 , in line with previous years. This shows me that .PSD and .PRPROJ formats, which are the standard for client-agency workflows, still carry too high a switching cost to migrate processes. That is why enterprise churn could be considered practically zero, and I do not see a competitor meaningfully eroding this part of the business. That said, we can talk about pressure in the stock photography vertical, where ADBE has around $450M in ARR (1.9% of total revenue), following management’s comments dur...
Chinese artificial‑intelligence firms have emerged as one of the most volatile pockets of Asia’s equity markets, with shares of newly listed model developers and chip designers swinging on retail flows. Half of the region’s top 10 most volatile stocks based on 90-day annualized volatility are recent IPOs from the sector, according to Bloomberg calculations for firms valued above $10 billion. Moore...
Chinese artificial‑intelligence firms have emerged as one of the most volatile pockets of Asia’s equity markets, with shares of newly listed model developers and chip designers swinging on retail flows. Half of the region’s top 10 most volatile stocks based on 90-day annualized volatility are recent IPOs from the sector, according to Bloomberg calculations for firms valued above $10 billion. Moore Threads Technology Co. , for example, soared more than 700% in five days before nearly halving, while AI model developer MiniMax Group Inc. climbed more than 450% since its January debut. Chinese stocks — especially those listed in Hong Kong — are no stranger to speculative swings. But the recent surge in volatility has been amplified by thin institutional ownership and the frenzy around all things AI. The swings could intensify as some companies move toward inclusion into trading links with onshore exchanges, opening the door for mainland investors who are even more inclined to quick, momentum-driven trading. “All these new AI stocks are almost entirely valued on their AI roadmap. That means their earnings and sentiment are highly sensitive to the whole AI story in China,” said Jasmine Duan , senior investment strategist at RBC Wealth Management Asia. “There is risk in chasing the rally because some of their business models are not proved, and change can be quite rapid.” The latest hype around China’s token consumption highlights just how extreme those moves can be. Investors are starting to bet that token sellers like MiniMax and Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC Ltd., known as Zhipu, are best positioned to benefit from the rising demand for tokens — which measures data units processed by AI models for generating text and other inputs. That optimism has drawn in the retail crowd. Exchange data show that institutions required to disclose their holdings account for just 9.3% of MiniMax’s shares, with the remainder held by individuals and non-reporting investors. Among Asia’s ...
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index inched up again in March, rising 0.8 points to 91.8. The latest reading was higher than the forecast of 87.8 and is the highest level for the index so far this year. The Present Situation Index, which is based on consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions, rose 4.6 poi...
Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index inched up again in March, rising 0.8 points to 91.8. The latest reading was higher than the forecast of 87.8 and is the highest level for the index so far this year. The Present Situation Index, which is based on consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions, rose 4.6 points to 123.3. Meanwhile, the Expectations Index, which is based on consumers' short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, fell 1.7 points to 70.9. Note that a level of 80 or below for the Expectations Index historically signals a recession within the next year, and the index has been below 80 since February 2025. “Consumer confidence ticked up again in March, as a modest improvement in consumers’ views of current conditions outweighed a slight downshift in expectations for the future,” said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board . “Three of five components of the Index firmed in March, and overall confidence improved modestly for a second month. Nonetheless, the Index has been on a general downward trend since 2021.” Peterson added: “Consumers’ write-in responses on factors affecting the economy continued to skew towards pessimism. Comments about prices and the cost of goods suggest that the cost of living remained at the top of consumers’ minds. As the war in Iran overlapped significantly with the survey sample period, comments about oil/gas and war/conflict spiked, while specific mentions of trade and tariffs decreased notably.” Unsurprisingly given the Iran war oil shock, consumers’ average and median 12-month inflation expectations surged in March to levels last seen in August 2025, when US consumers awaited more tariff announcements from the US federal government. Consequently, the percentage of consumers stating that interest rates over the next 12 months will be higher on net skyrocketed from 34.9% to 42.4%. Expectations for ...