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Halo, short for heavy assets, low obsolescence, has emerged as a major Wall Street theme in recent weeks. Investors are rotating from tech stocks to companies with real physical assets amid fears over artificial intelligence, geopolitical tensions and rising prices of resources and infrastructure. Here’s what you need to know about how the strategy gained popularity and why it matters to China. What is Halo? Advertisement The term was coined last month by Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, to describe firms that own large, high-barrier physical assets and…
South-east Asian nations are girding for a Middle East oil shock by telling citizens to work from home, implementing four-day weeks and promising increased spending on energy subsidies. The sometimes drastic measures highlight deep concerns about the impact of the US and Israel’s war against Iran on economic growth and fiscal sustainability in a region of more than 700mn people that depends heavily on the Middle East for oil and gas. Philippine government officials should “limit official travel to essential functions only, as part of efforts to conserve energy amid…
Taiwan’s defence ministry has received a US letter of offer and acceptance (LOA) for 82 Himars rocket launchers, according to officials, who said the deal must be signed by March 26 as other pending arms contracts near expiry. Speaking before a legislative session on Tuesday, Wellington Koo Li-hsiung, the island’s defence minister, said the Himars, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, agreement was one of five US arms procurement deals awaiting legislative authorisation. Koo noted that the LOAs for M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, Tow-2B anti-tank missiles and Javelin missiles would expire…
With its cutting-edge humanoid robots busting moves on the world’s most-watched television programme and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz touring a company factory during a state visit, both within the last month, Unitree Robotics – already a household name in China – has seen its profile move into the stratosphere. And local government officials, eager to burnish their economies by strengthening ties to up-and-coming businesses, have made the domestic start-up’s founder and CEO Wang Xingxing a feted guest at events. The mayor of Ningbo, Wang’s hometown in the eastern province of…
Mainland Chinese citizens feel more favourable towards Taiwan than they did six months ago, support a hardline stance towards the US if another trade war erupts and view Russia and North Korea most positively and Japan least positively among their neighbours, according to a new survey by the Carter Centre and Emory University. One finding that comes through loud and clear, its authors said, is that mainlanders believe they have arrived and their country now belongs in a grouping limited to China and the US. “The Chinese public understand themselves…
Washington’s heavy reliance on the Chinese minerals for its advanced weapon systems means China could dictate how long US strikes on Iran can go on, according to sources and analysts. Sources told the South China Morning Post, on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, that Washington had only around two months of rare earths inventory, and the supplies would dominate talks when Trump sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Advertisement Beijing also appeared less eager for a deal than Washington, they added. Trump said last…
China’s cybersecurity agency on Tuesday issued a second warning about security and data risks tied to OpenClaw, despite a rush among local governments and tech companies to adopt the artificial intelligence agent amid a nationwide frenzy. At a time when major Chinese cloud service providers were touting easy deployment of OpenClaw to capitalise on its popularity, improper installation and use of the agent had also led to severe security risks, said the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT), a non-governmental and non-profit cybersecurity technical platform,…
As US President Donald Trump prepares for his first China trip in nearly a decade, Chinese scholars see an opportunity to steer ties away from confrontation and towards a managed coexistence. Speakers at a seminar hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s Centre on Contemporary China and the World last week were cautiously optimistic about prospects for the relationship. That was despite Washington’s strategic pullback, heightened sensitivities over the Taiwan Strait, and intensifying conflict in the Middle East. Advertisement Da Wei, director of the Centre for International Security and Strategy…
Chinese analysts expect Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, to continue and possibly harden his assassinated father’s policies towards the US and Israel. The appointment of the 56-year-old cleric could signal a sense of continuity inside Iran, as well as stabilise ties between Beijing and Tehran, the analysts added. Iran’s Assembly of Experts confirmed on Monday that the younger Khamenei would succeed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader – a post holding the final say over state affairs, including foreign policy and the country’s nuclear programme. Advertisement…