Top China Stories from WSJ: Yuan Chill, Nationalists in Japan, Weak Land Sales

Hot Money Turns Cold On Yuan: Investors and companies are increasingly pulling money out of China and its currency in a vote of concern over its growth prospects, a development that could hinder Beijing’s efforts to spark a turnaround. (Free)

Nationalist Groups in Japan Gain Clout: Nationalist politicians and activists are wielding new clout in Japan, straining the country’s ties with China and South Korea, and creating headaches for policy makers in Tokyo. (Subscriber Content)

AFP/Getty Images
Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Shintaro Ishihara is the face of Japanese nationalism.

Sinopec Weighs Stake in Texas Power Project: A Chinese group that includes major oil company Sinopec is in advanced talks to put up to $1 billion in a Texas clean-energy project. (Subscriber Content)

Chinese Dairies Consider Closer Ties: China Mengniu Dairy, whose baby formula was among those found to be contaminated in the 2008 tainted-milk scandal, is in talks to buy a stake in China Modern Daily Holdings. (Subscriber Content)

Weak Land Sales in China Pinch Local Governments: China’s property market has begun to show signs of a modest rebound, but property developers’ skittishness at land auctions shows lingering strains from Beijing’s campaign to bring down property prices.

[source: WSJ]

Dell CEO’s Kid Overshares on Social Media

The twitter account for Alexa Dell, daughter of Dell founder Michael Dell, has been deactivated following security concerns prompted by her detailed account of the family’s whereabouts.

The security of the CEO, who expects to spend $2.7 million  in 2012 t0 keep his family safe, came under question after an photo of Zachary Dell was posted by his sister Alexa on photo-sharing app Instragram, according to Bloomberg Businessweek

The teenager shared a photo of Zachary devouring cuisine in a private plane on a trip to Fiji.  But, that’s not all, the magazine reported.  Like millions of others who use social network sites, she would often-times detail the time, date and location of many events attended by the family, including trips to New York City and a high school graduation dinner, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The photo has since been removed.

After Alexa posted the photo to Instragram, it would eventually pop up on the website Rich Kids of Instragram, a tumblr account dedicated to showing the way people reveal their wealth on social media.

Since many users have their Facebook account or Twitter accounts connected to the application–recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion–it’s often easy to track additional social media information from users. A Twitter account and Google+ account purported to be used by Alexa has since been taken down.

Michael Dell is a self-made billionaire. At 19 years old, Dell launched  from his dorm room at the University of Texas the hardware company that would reach a $20 billion market cap. The father of four has a net worth of $15.9 billion, according to Forbes.

“We don’t comment on Mr. Dell’s or his family’s personal activities,” a spokesperson for Dell told ABC News.

[source: ABC News]

S'pore is first Asian country to win International Water Association top award

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) on Wednesday won the Global Superior Achievement Award for the Punggol Waterway project.

The waterway was lauded for its innovation, green practices and novel technologies.

The award is the highest honour conferred by the International Water Association for the most outstanding project in all categories.

It is also the first time an Asian country has clinched the prestigious award since its inception in 2006.

The previous top winning projects were from the United States and Australia.

HDB's Punggol Waterway also clinched the Global Grand Winner in the planning category.

Thirteen prizes were given out for six different categories.

Asia Stock Markets Down on Confusing U.S. Data

(BANGKOK, Thailand) — Asian stocks fell Wednesday, with contradictory economic data out of the U.S. dragging down market enthusiasm.

Investors faced some confusing data out of the U.S.: Separate reports showed better-than-expected retail sales, a sign that Americans are spending, but also stagnant inventories among U.S. companies, an indication of caution among businesses.

(MORE: Behind current stock market pessimism)

Americans increased their retail spending in July by the most in five months, a gain of 0.8 percent over June. The increase was welcome since it came after three straight monthly declines. But the sluggish inventory trend could act as a drag on overall economic growth. When businesses place fewer orders, factory production slows.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 8,903.85. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.1 percent to 20,074.08, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent to 4,275.70. Markets in South Korea were closed for a public holiday.

A gloomy picture out of Europe also compounded worries. Although Germany posted surprise growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter on Tuesday, it was not enough to prevent the 17-country eurozone economy from contracting 0.2 percent in the period.

Analysts at Capital Economics said in an email commentary that “the big picture is that the economic growth required to bring the region’s debt crisis to an end is still nowhere in sight.”

Over the past few weeks, stocks, as well as the euro and the price of oil, have rallied on hopes the world’s major central banks will do more to shore up the global economy.

Many economists believe the U.S. Federal Reserve will try to stimulate the economy by launching another program of buying government bonds and mortgage-backed securities to keep interest rates low. They will be closely watching Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on Aug. 31 at an annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

(MORE: The best place in the world to start a company)

On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average edged up marginally to 13,172.14. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was slightly down at 1,403.93. The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.2 percent to 3,016.98.

Benchmark oil fell 34 cents to $93.09 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 70 cents to end at $93.43 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.2322 from $1.2330 in late trading Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 78.82 yen from 78.79 yen.

[source: TIME]

Toyota sales target tweaked higher

NAGOYA — Toyota Motor Corp. plans to raise its global sales target for this year to 8.8 million units from almost 8.6 million, reflecting brisk sales in emerging economies, sources said Tuesday.

The leading automaker also plans to revise upward its global production target for the year, which is currently set at 8.65 million vehicles, the sources said.

Honda quarterly profit jumps fourfold

TOKYO —

Honda Motor said Tuesday its net profit surged more than fourfold to 131.7 billion yen for the three months to June, underscoring a recovery from the impact of last year’s quake-tsunami disasters.

The figure was up from 31.8 billion yen for the same period last year.

Sales soared 42.1% to 2.44 trillion yen while operating profit jumped to 176 billion yen from 22.6 billion yen a year earlier, the company said.

Panasonic returns to profitability

Panasonic said Tuesday it swung back into the black for the April-June quarter as it cut costs to restructure its business while battling the negative effects of a strong yen.

The Osaka-based consumer electronics giant posted a net profit of 12.8 billion yen, reversing a net loss of 30.4 billion yen for the same period last year.