China stocks including Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu are on the rise early Friday after mixed economic data and fresh stimulus. China-influenced commodities stocks like copper giant Freeport-McMoRan and diversified miners Rio Tinto and BHP Group continued their recent momentum, aided by a weak dollar following Wednesday's pivotal Fed meeting.
Industrial output rose to a 21-month-high 6.6% from a year ago in November, up from 4.6% in October and ahead of expectations. However, retail sales missed expectations, with the 10.1% year-over-year gain boosted by soft year-ago data before China fully ditched its zero-Covid policies.
Chinese officials also took more steps to revive economic growth. The People's Bank of China is offering a record 800 billion yuan (about $112.40 billion) in one-year loans to the banking system, doubling estimates. On Thursday, Beijing and Shanghai cut down payments for home purchases, while Beijing extended the maximum length of mortgages to 30 years from 25. Those moves are part of an effort to shore up falling home prices and lost faith in the property market that continues to drag down the economy.
So far, betting that Chinese stimulus will revive stocks has largely been a bust, though some top stocks have performed well.
BABA, JD Stocks Bounce
BIDU stock rose 1.7%, BABA 3.2% and JD 5.2% in midday Friday market action. Still, those stocks were about 30%, 40% and 60% off their respective 52-week highs as of Thursday's close. EV upstart NIO rose 1.2%, but had lost more than half its value.
However, PDD Holdings, which added 1.5%, is at a two-year high.
Still, Chinese stocks were mixed overall. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 2.4% and the Shanghai Stock Exchange composite index fell 0.6%.
Non-Chinese mining stocks that would benefit from improvement in China's economy were mixed early Friday. FCX stock, which jumped 7% to clear an early entry point on Thursday, dipped 0.6%. But BHP and RIO, both big iron ore producers, rose 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively. Both BHP and RIO cleared early entries earlier in the week.
Be sure to read IBD's The Big Picture column after each trading day to get the latest on the prevailing stock market trend and what it means for your trading decisions.
