FirstFT: Xi meets American CEOs as businesses seek to mend China ties

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China’s President Xi Jinping met US chief executives including Chubb’s Evan Greenberg and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon today in Beijing as American business leaders sought to mend ties frayed by geopolitical and trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

State news agency Xinhua reported that the meeting was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and included a photo shoot with the executives, which Beijing’s official broadcaster CCTV said also included Bloomberg chair Mark Carney and FedEx’s Raj Subramaniam.

It also said Blackstone’s founder joined the gathering without naming him. Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman is in Beijing visiting officials.

Th executives were in the capital this week to attend the China Development Forum, Beijing’s flagship business conference. The meeting follows a similar event in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco. Here’s more on today’s meeting.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Federal Reserve: Governor Christopher Waller will deliver remarks about the economic outlook before the Economic Club of New York. 

• Companies: Carnival Cruise Line will report earnings before the start of trading while pharmaceutical group Moderna holds its annual investor meeting.

• Economic data: Mexico releases its latest trade balance and unemployment data. Argentina releases the 2023 second half poverty rate.

The US edition of the FT Weekend Festival returns on May 4 in Washington DC. Join speakers including Jake Sullivan, Gucci Westman, Jancis Robinson and Venki Ramakrishnan. FirstFT readers can claim a 10 per cent discount by registering today.

Five more top stories

1. Shares in Donald Trump’s social media business jumped on their Nasdaq debut, making the former US president’s stake worth $4.6bn. Trump Media & Technology Group rose as high as $79.38 a share from the previous day’s price of $49.95, before closing up 16 per cent at $57.99. Trading was so volatile that it was halted for several minutes. But here’s why TMTG’s share price jump is unlikely to help Trump secure funds.

2. JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon had a one-on-one lunch with US vice-president Kamala Harris at the White House last week, according to people familiar with the matter. His private meeting was not disclosed in the vice-president’s public schedule and comes at a testy time in relations between the Biden administration and US business. Joshua Franklin and James Politi have more details.

3. US small-cap stocks are suffering their worst run of performance relative to large companies in more than 20 years, highlighting the extent to which investors have chased megacap technology stocks while smaller groups are weighed down by high interest rates. The Russell 2000 index has risen 24 per cent since the beginning of 2020, lagging behind the S&P 500’s more than 60 per cent gain over the same period. Read the full story.

4. Solid-state battery technology for electric cars is still years away from commercialisation with “a lot of showstoppers” blocking its development, said the head of the Chinese company that dominates the industry. The much-hyped technology does not work well enough, lacks durability and still has safety problems, the founder and chief of CATL told the Financial Times. Read the full interview with Robin Zeng.

• More EVs: A quarter of electric vehicles sold in the EU this year will be made in China as the country’s new entrants continue to take sales from local rivals, according to new research by a policy group.

5. Cryptocurrency group Copper hosted a party where guests were served sushi off two partially clad models at the five-star Mandrake hotel in London last week. The company chaired by former UK chancellor Lord Philip Hammond stores digital assets for customers. Here’s more about the event.

• More crypto: The US Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking $2bn in penalties from Ripple Labs after a court found the company had improperly sold some tokens to investors. 

• Opinion: Crypto is playing dress-up to make itself look grown-up, writes Katie Martin, but its new clothes may not prove a good fit.

News in-depth

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after a container ship collided with it has triggered urgent questions. Wes Moore, governor of the state of Maryland, has declared a state of emergency after the elevated roadway’s disintegration into the Patapsco river. Six people are presumed dead, according to state police. What happened, and who will pay?

We’re also reading . . . 

• Fascism is not dead: The 1920s and 1930s were different times, writes Martin Wolf, but do not be complacent: history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes and is rhyming now.

• Israel-Hamas war: Israel’s second raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital is stretching into its ninth day and shaping into the biggest battle of the nearly six-month war.

• Fortnox’s rise: The $4.6bn Swedish software company’s stock has boomed under chief executive Tommy Eklund, but how much further can its niche business expand?

Chart of the day

The price of cocoa surged past $10,000 a tonne for the first time yesterday, as a dizzying rise in prices caused by poor harvests in Africa continued to accelerate. The market was “out of control”, said Andrew Moriarty, price reporting manager at Mintec, a commodities data group. “Everyone is just bracing for impact.”

Take a break from the news

Are we really ready to live forever? In an age of remarkable scientific advances, Stephen Cave reviews three new books that explore the prospects for living longer — and the challenges for society.

Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm