Finance

Salesforce signage outside office building in New York.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading Wednesday:
Allbirds — Allbirds shares sunk more than 16% after the shoe maker’s losses grew in the third quarter, even as its revenue rose from last year. The quarterly earnings report was Allbirds’ first as a public company.

Lennar — Shares of Lennar rose 3.3%, outpacing other homebuilders, following an upgrade to buy from hold at Goldman Sachs. The investment firm said Lennar’s business strategy should lead to strong growth in 2022.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals — Vertex shares rose more than 9% after the biotech company announced positive results from a study of its its VX-147 drug candidate in a severe genetic kidney disorder and said it plans to advance it into pivotal development.
Moderna — Shares of the drugmaker tumbled 11.8% after the company appealed a patent ruling related to a competitor Arbutus Pharma’s drug-delivery technology and lost. Arbutus shares soared 44%.
Salesforce — The software giant’s shares dropped 11.7% on the back of mixed fourth-quarter guidance, which overshadowed better-than-expected results for the third quarter. Salesforce also announced Bret Taylor as new co-CEO, alongside Marc Benioff.
Exxon Mobil — Shares of Exxon gained 2% midday but ended the day slightly lower after the company predicted it will double its earnings and cash flow by 2027 from 2019 levels, while reducing emissions. The company said it plans to spend between $20 billion and $25 billion per year through 2027, compared to the $30 billion to $35 billion it forecasted spending annually before the pandemic took hold.

Box — Cloud services company Box saw its shares jump 10% following its quarterly financial results. Box posted earnings of 22 cents per share on revenue of $224 million versus the Refinitv estimates of 21 cents per share on revenue of $218.5 million.
Ambarella — The semiconductor company’s shares jumped 14% after a better-than-expected quarterly report. Ambarella recorded a profit of 57 cents per share, beating a Refinitiv estimate by 8 cents. Revenue came in at $92.2 million versus the $90.3 million expected.
Build-A-Bear Workshop — The teddy bear retailer saw shares rise nearly 27% after reporting generated record revenue for the third quarter and raised its full year guidance. It also authorized up to $25 million in share buybacks.
— CNBC’s Hannah Miao and Jesse Pound contributed reporting

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A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 29, 2021 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The red-hot SPAC market could have an ESG problem.
Securus Technologies, a prison services company that makes profit from charging families of the incarcerated for phone calls, is in talks to go public via merging with Atlantic Avenue Acquisition Corp, according a person familiar with the matter.

While prison services telecoms are less scrutinized than companies that operate correctional facilities, their for-profit nature and their line of business still typically make ESG-conscious investors shy away. (ESG stands for environmental, social and governance.)
“In a climate focused on ESG, and given criticisms being hurled at SPACs in general, you can see how this combination could become a controversial deal for investors,” said Perrie Weiner, partner at Baker McKenzie LLP.
Securus Technologies and Atlantic Avenue Acquisition Corp didn’t respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. Bloomberg News first reported on the merger discussions.
SPACs, which stands for special purpose acquisition companies, are created to raise capital from public markets and then use that cash to merge with a private company and take it public within a two-year timeframe.
Investors in SPACs as a rule do not know the identity of the firm that will be targeted for merger. After a blockbuster year, there are currently over 400 SPACs actively looking for a target company, according to data from Wolfe Research.

Many wonder if pre-merger SPACs are inherently not ESG-friendly with the lack of clarity on where the money will go in the future.
Bernstein analysts have called SPACs “one of the most anti-ESG assets imaginable” as they fail on the governance side of things.
In terms of the social aspect, one particular deal recently raised eyebrows on Wall Street.
In October when Digital World Acquisition Corp. announced plans to merge with former President Donald Trump’s planned social media platform, at least two hedge funds pulled out their investments after learning of the target company.
“Many investors are grappling with hard questions about how to incorporate their values into their work. For us, this was not a close call,” hedge fund Saba Capital Management founder Boaz Weinstein said then of his DWAC sale.
As SPACs face regulatory headwinds, many are pivoting to companies with ESG credentials, targeting either an environmental thesis or social impact theme, such as electric vehicle companies.
“That’s where investor appetite is right now,” Weiner said. “And, that’s why you will see many private equity firms cut loose companies that fly in the face of ESG, and they will look to SPACs as a quick way to divest themselves of those sorts of negatively perceived investments.” More

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During his testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee on Tuesday, Fed Chair Powell said inflation “won’t leave a permanent mark.” But one investor thinks inflation may be here to stay. 

Christopher Merrill is the co-founder and CEO of Harrison Street and sees the stickiness of price increases first-hand with his firm’s focus on demographic-driven real estate, such as student housing and nursing homes. Despite the challenges these segments faced during the pandemic, Harrison Street was able to rake in an additional $7 billion last year, bringing AUM to $39 billion.  
Merrill sat down with Leslie Picker to discuss how his strategy has endured over the years and why he thinks inflation may linger for a decade.  
 (The below has been edited for length and clarity.)
Leslie Picker: [Your] strategy, it’s weathered the financial crisis, it survived COVID, despite, for a while there, there was some disintermediation in nursing homes and universities. But what about inflation? What about this current macroeconomic environment that feels so uncertain right now? Do you think inflation is here to stay? And how does that impact your portfolio?
Christopher Merrill: I think for one, the certain levels that we’re seeing today, I would assume that there will be, as we see improvements in supply chain, I think we’ll see some of those numbers come off a little bit. But yeah, I think it’s prudent in the way that we’re thinking about the businesses that  one should expect some level of now inflation in their portfolio going forward. And frankly, one of the benefits is a large part of the assets in our portfolio, we can reprice. I think when you mentioned that comment on the capital that we’ve had investing in our asset classes, a lot of it has to do with the ability to have inflation protection built in because we can reprice a lot of our portfolios on a monthly or annual basis.

Picker: What does that mean by reprice? Does that mean raise the rent, essentially?
Merrill: Yes, in a lot of ways it does. It means either raise the rent, get more in line with what market is. If we’re building an asset, it’s really going to be the opportunity to align that with current market fundamentals. We’re seeing a lot of increase in demand. There’s been a lot of reduction in supply lately. So really, it’s getting that  demand-supply balance in check. And the ability to, again, reprice on the revenue side, really will help protect against inflationary pressures on these asset classes.
Picker: Are you already doing that? Give us a sense of what the inflation picture looks like on the ground right now.
Merrill: I think we’re seeing it. The best sense for us is a few things. When you look at our self storage portfolio, we’re seeing a lot of increases month-to-month right now. We’ve seen 6%-7% month-to-month increases in the storage space. Then you take senior housing, which was a sector that everyone was very concerned about coming out of, or, at really the start of the pandemic. We were a bit contrarian, because we saw the fundamentals, we saw the data. And now the third quarter saw the largest absorption in senior housing ever. So I think what you’re seeing is a lot of these asset classes that really have that need-based fundamental, more demographics. We’re seeing strong occupancy in student housing, we’re seeing strong occupancy in our medical office, our life science portfolio. I think it really is about the asset classes we’re involved in. But for us, these need-based assets’ demographics we think =bode well in the current environment.
Picker: What does that mean, in terms of putting capital to work? You’ve raised almost $7 billion this year, you have to spend that somewhere. Does inflation give you more pause in terms of putting that capital to work? Or given the price inelasticity that you mentioned of the properties that you’re buying, does that make it more appealing to put capital to work right now?
Merrill: We’ve been fortunate that the investment opportunities have been tremendous, I think we’ll invest upwards of $13 billion into both real estate and real assets this year, both North America and Europe. And a lot of that is there are folks that have certainly hit the pause button, that may be sitting on the sidelines as they triage some of their existing traditional assets. We’ve really never invested in the retail, the hotels, the office, we’ve always focused more on the demographic side of things. So for us, it’s allowed us to sort of look forward and we’re playing the long game. For us, it’s about demographics, it’s not trying to time markets. 
The real challenges, these asset classes that we’re in, in the education, healthcare, life science space, they’re just hard to access. And so we’ve been working hard, creating a moat around our business for these relationships. And now a lot of folks are really trying to find ways to access these asset classes, because they see the resilience of them.
Picker: Where are the biggest opportunities right now? 
Merrill: It’s a tough one. It’s like trying to pick which one of my children I like the best. I think for us, education, healthcare is where our focus is as a firm. We think there’s great opportunities to expand our relationships. We’re doing a number of public-to-private partnerships with universities and health systems. We’re investing heavily in the life science sector. We’re seeing great opportunities in data centers, in digital. We’re also growing – we have a social infrastructure strategy – we’re growing our renewable portfolio, investing in wind, solar, hydro, and district energy. And the nice thing for us is, you know, again, as a demographic investor, need-based investor, these are global themes. So we’ve expanded the business into Canada. And we’ve also expanded into Europe in these segments. 
Picker: You mentioned public-private partnerships and your work you’ve done with universities. We’re seeing a lot of mobility in Washington on stimulus. Do you see any potential opportunity for you on that front, whether it’s through infrastructure, or spending bills as a whole?
Merrill: I think when you look at the spending bills, there are specific things in there that I think will help part of our portfolios. The spending on broadband, those broadband upgrades will be I think a positive for our data center business. You’re seeing enhancements in the power grid. I think that will help transmission within our renewable space, in solar, in wind. I think though, really outside of the bill, one of the benefits we’ve seen is this $9 billion in COVID technology spending that we’ve seen over the past year and a half. That’s really been a really strong boost to a lot of our life science tenants. And I guess the new build back better plan they’re talking about really has a focus on renewable energy and again, that will, I think, bring more focus on our clean energy portfolio, as well. But I guess the real big picture is, going back to the question about inflation, is with all this spending of money, what are your views on inflation? And that’s why we think there is going to be some inflation for the near future because of this stimulus and a lot of capital that is coming into the system.
Picker: That’s interesting. Not everybody feels that way. How long into the future do you think that the stimulus will keep inflation high, or potentially, and I’ll ask you this question, go higher from here?
Merrill: I think in the near term, the numbers have been pretty high so I think we’ll see some tapering there. I think it’s prudent – I’ve heard some people say that, within 12 months, there won’t be talk of inflation – I think it’s prudent to, as you’re doing your portfolio allocation, you’re thinking about investing, to assume that there is going to be some level of inflation in the near term, and really, for the next decade, because of how much money we’re printing right now in the system. So, again, I think it’s prudent to really build your portfolio with that anticipation of inflation. I think we’re seeing a lot of investors increase their asset allocation to hard assets or real estate, and real assets I think, in lieu of that. I think people do see that there is going to be some pressure in these areas. More

HSBC is launching a new feature in its mobile app that lets U.K. customers invest in a range of ready-made funds.
Several fintech challengers have lured in younger users with the promise of low-cost trading, including Revolut and Freetrade.
Robo-advisors like Nutmeg and Moneybox, which offer automated portfolio management services, have also grown in popularity.

The HSBC logo displayed on a smartphone.
Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

LONDON — HSBC is going head-to-head with fintech challengers in the wealth management space, launching a new investing feature aimed at a younger clientele in the U.K.
The British bank said Wednesday it was rolling out a tool on its mobile app that lets people invest in a range of ready-made funds. Customers will need to invest a minimum of £50 ($66.62) to be eligible.

“Around 389,000 of our customers aged under 35 have sufficient assets to invest but are currently not doing so,” James Hewitson, head of wealth management at HSBC U.K., said in a statement. “On top of that, 64% of HSBC customers are digitally active.”
The new service will be available on iOS and Android in the coming weeks.
HSBC already offers an online investment advice service in the U.K. Its entry into app-based wealth management comes in response to a flood of financial upstarts like Revolut and Freetrade, which are luring in younger investors with the promise of low-cost trading and an easy-to-use application.
This week, British online stockbroker AJ Bell said it plans to launch a new app called Dodl which allows users to trade shares without having to pay any commission fees.
So-called robo-advisors like Nutmeg and Moneybox, which offer automated portfolio management services, have also grown in popularity lately. Nutmeg in June agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan as part of the U.S. lender’s ambitions to launch its Chase retail banking brand in the U.K.

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Check out the companies making headlines in premarket trading.
Salesforce — Shares of the software giant dropped more than 6% in premarket trading despite a better-than-expected third-quarter earnings report. The company’s fourth-quarter guidance missed analysts’ expectations. Salesforce also announced it promoted Bret Taylor to the role of co-CEO, alongside Marc Benioff.

Box — Shares of Box rose more than 9% in early morning trading after the company’s quarterly financial results beat on the top and bottom lines. Box posted earnings of 22 cents per share on revenue of $224 million versus the Refinitv consensus estimate of 21 cents per share on revenue of $218.5 million, according to Refinitiv. The company’s fourth-quarter and full-year revenue and earnings also topped estimates.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise — Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell about 2% in the premarket after missing analyst expectations for its quarterly revenue. The company reported revenue of $7.35 billion, below the Refinitiv consensus forecast of $7.38 billion. However, Hewlett Packard Enterprise posted a profit that came in 4 cents per share above consensus.
Ambarella — Shares of Ambarella surged more than 16% in early morning trading after a better-than-expected quarterly report. The semiconductor company earned 57 cents per share, beating Refinitiv estimates by 8 cents. Revenue came in at $92.2 million versus the $90.3 million expected.
Allbirds — Allbirds shares sunk more than 5% in the premarket after the shoe maker’s losses widened even as its revenue rose from last year. The quarterly report was Allbirds’ first as a public company.
Goldman Sachs, Amazon — Shares of Goldman Sachs and Amazon both moved higher in premarket trading after CNBC reported the bank is unveiling a cloud service for Wall Street trading firms backed by Amazon’s cloud division. The new service is called GS Financial Cloud for Data with Amazon Web Services. Goldman added 0.9% while Amazon gained 1.2%.

Lennar — Lennar shares gained more than 4% after an upgrade from Goldman Sachs to a buy rating. Goldman says demand for new homes remains high in the country.
Krispy Kreme — Shares of Krispy Kreme fell more than 3% in early morning trading after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to a sell rating. Rising cost pressures should weigh on the stock, according to Goldman.
DoorDash — Shares of DoorDash gained more than 3% premarket after Gordon Haskett upgraded the stock to buy from hold. The firm said the omicron variant could spark a rebound for the food delivery app as Covid fears flare up.

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U.S. stock futures were higher in overnight trading on Tuesday following a sell-off on Wall Street over fears about the new Covid variant, omicron, and the Federal Reserve mulling a quicker-than-planned taper.
Dow futures rose about 60 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.5%.

The major averages have seen several volatile sessions, starting last Friday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its worst day since October 2020. Stocks rebounded on Monday, only to turn downward again on Tuesday.
Wednesday marks the first trading day of the final month of 2021.
On Tuesday, the Dow lost more than 650 points. The S&P 500 shed 1.9% and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dipped 1.6%. The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 tumbled 1.9% as cyclical names dragged on the markets.
Stocks hit their session lows when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will discuss speeding up the bond-buying taper at its December meeting. Despite the potential disruption of omicron, the Fed chief said he thinks reducing the pace of monthly bond buys can move quicker than the $15 billion-a-month schedule announced earlier this month.
“At this point, the economy is very strong and inflationary pressures are higher, and it is therefore appropriate in my view to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases … perhaps a few months sooner,” Powell said. “I expect that we will discuss that at our upcoming meeting.”

Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:

Expediting the removal of the Fed’s easy policies tells investors that the central bank is focusing on addressing inflation, instead of new threats from the pandemic.
“Markets appear to be having trouble digesting the combo of elevated uncertainty around the impact of the Omicron variant and a hawkish Fed pivot in the context of persistently elevated inflation,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
Bond yields also retreated on Tuesday with the U.S. 10-year Treasury dropping 8 basis points to below 1.45% on mounting omicron fears.
The new Covid variant, first detected in South Africa, has now been identified in more than a dozen countries, causing many to restrict travel. Denting sentiment on Tuesday, the Moderna CEO told the Financial Times that he expects existing vaccines to be less effective against the new variant.
Stocks wrapped up a volatile month of trading on Tuesday. The Dow lost 3.7% for its second month of losses in three. The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.25% in November. The Russell 2000 shed 4.3% in November, its worst month since March 2020.
Still, the major averages are up solidly for the year. The Dow is up 12.7% and the S&P 500 is up 21.6% in 2021. The Nasdaq Composite is up an impressive 20.6% this year.
On Wednesday, investors will be evaluating updates on the omicron variant, as well as some key economic reports. November’s Manufacturing PMI, ISM Manufacturing print and October’s construction spending are set to release on Wednesday morning.
ADP’s private payroll data will be out at 8:15 a.m. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected 506,000 private jobs were added in November, down from October’s 571,000.

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The latest market setback may be a foreshock to a more serious downturn.
The Leuthold Group’s Jim Paulsen predicts a 10% to 15% pullback will rattle investors next year due to high valuations and less accommodative Federal Reserve policies.

“We are way overdue for a correction, and we’re going to get one,” the firm’s chief investment strategist told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Tuesday. “I would be trying to diversify away from the S&P 500, which I think might take the brunt of it.”
Paulsen, a long-term bull, isn’t as concerned about the economic and market impact of the Covid omicron variant.
“It’s more likely to prove to be less serious than we fear at the moment. It’s not like this is a brand new thing… We have a population that’s far more vaccinated,” he said. “The odds of it really having a significant shutdown effect like we had earlier are pretty low.”
But due to the overall risk backdrop, Paulsen is advising investors to start reducing exposure to large cap S&P 500 stocks, including Big Tech.
“I would spend more time on repositioning my portfolio — maybe taking advantage of how well tech and growth has done here in the last few months. Moving a little out of that,” said Paulsen.

He expects a major market setback to be temporary due to continued strong GDP and earnings growth. His S&P 500 target for next year is 5,500, which implies a 9.5% gain from Tuesday’s close.
“If inflation does moderate eventually and we do get beyond Covid in a bigger way, then we could really see some optimism breakout maybe in the latter part of next year,” he added.
Paulsen expects small and mid-cap stocks, cyclicals and international markets to emerge as the biggest winners.
“Look at the carnage in small caps and cyclicals,” he said. “If you’ve been looking to buy that, I’d take advantage of the fear that’s out there now to maybe do that.”
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.9% to close at 4,567.00. It’s now 4% away from its record highs.
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JACK MA, THE founder of China’s giant e-commerce platform, Alibaba, started his first web company after a visit to America in 1995. Cao Dewang, the boss of Fuyao Glass, a Chinese company made famous by the documentary “American Factory”, ventured into manufacturing after a trip to the Ford Motor Museum in Michigan. (The museum’s significance struck him only on the plane home, he told an interviewer, so he immediately booked a return flight to make a second visit.)Travel is vital to innovation. Unfortunately what is true of business is also true of viruses. At some point on its journey around the globe the covid-19 virus reinvented itself. The new Omicron variant will further entrench China’s tight restrictions on business travel. Indeed it may cause more disruption to China’s economy than to other GDP heavyweights. That is not because it will spread more widely in China. On the contrary. It is because the government will try so hard to stop it from doing so.Since the end of May, China has recorded 7,728 covid-19 infections. America has recorded 15.21m. And yet China’s curbs on movement and gathering have been tighter, especially near outbreaks (see chart 1). Its policy of “zero tolerance” towards covid-19 also entails only limited tolerance for international travel. It requires visitors to endure a quarantine of at least 14 days in an assigned hotel. The number of mainlanders crossing the border has dropped by 99%, according to Wind, a data provider.These restrictions have stopped previous variants from spreading. But periodic local lockdowns have also depressed consumption, especially of services like catering. And the restrictions on cross-border travel (including inspiring museum visits) will inflict unseen damage on innovation. Cutting business-travel spending in half is as bad for a country’s productivity as cutting R&D spending by a quarter, according to one study by Mariacristina Piva of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and her co-authors.If the Omicron variant is more infectious than other strains, it will increase the likelihood of covid-19 outbreaks in China, triggering more frequent lockdowns. If China had to maintain restrictions as severe as those it briefly imposed in mid-August, when it was fighting an outbreak that began in the city of Nanjing, the toll on growth could be considerable. If imposed for an entire quarter, it could subtract almost $130bn from China’s GDP, according to calculations based on a model of lockdowns by Goldman Sachs, a bank, equivalent to around 3% of quarterly output.Omicron is not the only threat to China’s growth. Even before its discovery, most economists thought that China’s growth would slow to 4.5-5.5% next year, as a property slowdown bites.But worse scenarios are imaginable. If China suffers a property slump as bad as the one it endured in 2014-15, GDP growth could fall to 3% in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with a year earlier, according to Oxford Economics, a consultancy. That would drag growth for the whole year down to 3.8%. If housing investment instead crashed as badly as it did in America or Spain in the second half of the 2000s, growth in China could fall to 1% in the final quarter of 2022. That would take growth for the year down to 2.1% (see chart 2). Losses would leave “numerous” smaller banks with less capital than the regulatory minimum of 10.5%, the firm says.Neither of these scenarios is inevitable. Oxford Economics rates the probability of a repeat of 2014-15 as “medium” not high. (China’s inventory of unsold properties, it points out, is lower now than it was seven years ago.) It thinks the chances of a repeat of an American or a Spanish-style disaster are low. Both the scenarios assume that China’s policymakers would respond only by easing monetary policy. But a more forceful reaction seems likely. Although the authorities’ “pain threshold” has increased, meaning they do not intervene as quickly to shore up growth, they still have their limits. “I don’t think the Chinese government is dogmatic. It is quite pragmatic,” says Tao Wang of UBS, a bank.Thus far, the property sector’s pain has been masked by the strength of other parts of the economy. Exports have contributed about 40% of China’s growth so far this year, points out Ting Lu of Nomura, another bank, as China provided the stay-at-home goods the world craved. If the new variant sends people back into their bunkers, China’s exporters may enjoy a second wind. More likely, export growth will slow, perhaps sharply. Mr Lu thinks exports will be flat, in price-adjusted terms, next year, contributing nothing to China’s growth. The economy will therefore need other sources of help.The most attractive stimulus options bypass the bloated property sector, which already commands too big a share of China’s GDP. The government could, for example, cut taxes on households, improve the social safety-net and even hand out consumption vouchers. The problem is that consumers may be slow to respond, especially if their homes are losing value. Not even China’s government can force households to spend.A more reliable option is public investment in decarbonisation and so-called “new” infrastructure, such as charging stations for electric vehicles and 5G networks. The difficulty, however, is that these sectors are too small to offset a serious downturn in the property market, as Goldman Sachs points out.The government will then have to stop that property downturn becoming too grave. Analysts at Citigroup, another bank, expect that China’s policymakers will prevent the level of property investment from falling in 2022. That will allow GDP to expand by 4.7%. To accomplish this, Citi reckons, China’s central bank will have to cut banks’ reserve requirements by half a percentage point and interest rates by a quarter-point early next year. The central government will need to ease its fiscal stance and allow local governments to issue more “special” bonds, which are repaid through project revenues.It will also require more direct efforts to “stabilise”, if not “stimulate”, the property market. The government will need to make it easier for homebuyers to obtain mortgages and ease limits on the share of property loans permitted in banks’ loan books. Citi’s economists think the authorities may even show some “temporary forbearance” in enforcing their formidable “three red lines”, the most prominent set of limits on borrowing by property developers, which cap developers’ liabilities relative to their equity, assets and cash.The one set of curbs China seems quite unwilling to ease are the covid-19 restrictions on international travel. They will certainly remain in place until after the Winter Olympics in February and the Communist Party’s national congress later next year. They may remain until China’s population is vaccinated with a more effective jab, perhaps one of the country’s own invention. (The government has been unconscionably slow in approving the vaccine co-developed by BioNTech and Pfizer.) The government may also want to build more hospitals to cope with severe cases. In early 2020 the country had only 3.6 critical-care beds per 100,000 people. Singapore has three times as many.Businesspeople in Shanghai have started talking about the zero-covid policy persisting until 2024. The virus is highly mutable. But China’s policy towards it is strikingly invariant. ■For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More