China’s slowing down

Data was released yesterday, revealing that private sector activity in China had fallen once again, ultimately taking it to its slowest pace in over six months. Whilst some are now suggesting that expectations were too high at the beginning of the year, the Chinese central bank is working hard to try and turn things around. Both the Chinese and Hong Kong indexes fell off the back of the news, as did other sectors that have close business ties with China, including luxury fashion and semiconductors. 

2023’s winners and losers

As the second quarter of the year drew to a close last week, many headlines have been dominated by the stocks and sectors that have shown strength or weakness through the first six months of a tough year. Financial services and pharmaceuticals are proving to be the main sectors down on the S&P 500. This is due to financial services suffering under the weight of bank collapses, whilst pharma struggles to keep up momentum post Covid-19 pandemic demands. Tech is notably driving markets, being one of the only sectors firmly in the green. 

GREE stock soars

Greenidge Generation Holdings, with ticker ‘GREE’, was one of the stocks that saw the biggest gains in the last two days on the US markets. The company, which focuses on carbon neutral mining services of Bitcoin, saw its stock surge 26% on Monday alone, and is showing no real signs of stopping, with some analysts forecasting an increase as high as 460% by the end of the year. Of course, this still hinges on Bitcoin’s ever changing popularity, but the combination of carbon consciousness, as well as an alternative to traditional banks, could be an interesting winning point for the stock.  

Sources: AJ Bell, IG, Motley Fool, Nasdaq, Financial Times, Forbes, Trading Economics