
Chinese investors face uncertainty in Brazil following a knife-edge presidential election result
AI-generated summary
China's firms are widening their overseas footprints as domestic profits narrow and production capacity expands. Brazil's presidential election has implications for Chinese companies doing business in South America.
With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China's firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.'s next phase of "going global" and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.
A presidential election in Brazil, a country thousands of miles away, might seem like just another headline to many in China. But for Chinese companies doing business in South America, the stakes are considerably higher.
When right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro took the lead in the first round of voting in early October, Ken Liu, a Chinese exporter of digital textile printing equipment operating in Brazil, grew concerned about the implications for his business.

The Chinese authorities blocked the Manus acquisition on the grounds of national security, causing foreign investors to worry about operating in China. ABB, headquartered in Zurich, is China's largest robotics market player. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son was frustrated by the deal and his artificial intelligence investment strategy is also facing doubts.

The sell-off of artificial intelligence-related stocks pushed up the VIX index, which once exceeded 28 points during the session on Thursday (5th), the highest since March 31. The intraday fluctuation exceeded 11 points, which was the largest single-day fluctuation since April 9. Options trading showed that few traders expected this situation, with VIX call volume approaching 800,000 contracts, 3.5 times the average over the past 30 days.

As of November 5, the amount of panda bonds issued during the year reached 251.805 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58.12%, setting another record high. Foreign-funded issuers accounted for 54% of the total funds raised, surpassing Chinese-funded issuers for the first time; sovereign issuers increased, with Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and other countries completing their first issuances. Zhu Hualei predicts that the annual issuance volume is likely to reach 300 billion yuan.

The U.S. stock market fell sharply on November 5, with the Nasdaq Composite Index falling 5.52%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 3.44%, and the S&P 500 falling 4.36%. Chip stocks and artificial intelligence-related stocks suffered massive selling, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling 12.25%, and Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, etc. all falling by more than 9%. Market analysts believe that the results of the U.S. midterm elections have intensified investors’ doubts about the direction of artificial intelligence industry policies.

Taiwan stocks fell sharply on the 5th, and the balance of listed financing decreased by more than 20 billion yuan. However, the financing of many popular ETFs has increased against the trend, indicating that investors are trying to share the bargain; on the other hand, the financing of inverse ETFs has significantly decreased due to profit-taking.
He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, visited Beijing for investigation from November 4 to 5, emphasizing the need to accelerate self-reliance and self-reliance in high-level science and technology, strengthen the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and promote the continuous development of the economy in a new and better direction.