Juice

It’s reform season in China. Various arms of the government are mobilizing in a campaign to juice a lackluster post-Covid recovery. The China Securities Regulatory Commission pitched in Aug. 18, with a long list of proposed measures to “boost investor confidence” in the country’s volatile securities markets.

In better times, with Westerners clamoring for access to Chinese stocks, this might be a big deal. The CSRC floated changes from longer trading hours and lower transaction fees, to “encouraging” share buybacks by listed companies. In the current ultrabearish environment, such moves look, along with most of Beijing’s other market tweaks, like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.