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.

Deutsche Bank workers involved in LIBOR fraud

Germany's largest commercial lender, Deutsche Bank, has confirmed that some of its employees were involved in the manipulation of inter-bank interest rates known as LIBOR.

The bank made the revelation in an internal document sent to staff on Tuesday.

The bank denied systemic wrongdoing. It stressed that its managers were not involved in any of the fraudulent activities.

LIBOR is an average of the interest rates charged between banks. It serves as a benchmark for a wide range of other rates. In June, British bank Barclays was ordered to pay more than 400 million dollars in fines for manipulating LIBOR.

UBS took a huge loss on Facebook

Major Swiss financial group UBS says it took a huge loss on the Facebook initial public offering due to glitches in the Nasdaq system.

UBS made the information public in its April-June quarterly financial statement on Tuesday.

UBS says the exchange's technical troubles made it impossible to confirm the trading of Facebook stock for several hours when the social networking giant was listed on the Nasdaq market in May. This made the bank buy many more shares than it needed.

UBS says it suffered a loss of about 360 million dollars because the Facebook stock price plunged after the initial public offering. UBS is planning to take legal measures against Nasdaq.

Several financial institutions have already taken Nasdaq to court, demanding compensation.

Largest Asian marshalling station to open in Wuhan

(english.cnhubei.com) Wuhan North railway marshalling station, the largest in Asia, will be completed in mid-April, local report said.

　　With a total investment of 2.4 billion Yuan (US$353 million) and an area of 4.67 square kilometers, the station has 112 marshalling railway lines for freight.

　　The marshalling station, located on the junction of Beijing-Guangzhou rail line and Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu expressway, will exert a significant influence on Wuhan's role as a national railway hub and promote the logistic industry in central China.

China has over 1 mln multimillionaires: Hurun Report

The latest edition of the Hurun Report issued Tuesday indicated that the number of multimillionaires in China reached 1.02 million as of the end of 2011.

The report said that Chinese individuals with more than 10 million yuan (1.6 million U.S. dollars) broke through the one million mark for the first time.

There are 63,500 billionaires among these individuals, it said.

U.S. to keep antidumping duties on tapered roller bearings from China

The United States determined Tuesday it would continue to slap antidumping duties against tapered roller bearings from China.

Revoking the current antidumping duty order on imports of Chinese tapered roller bearings would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time, said the U.S. International Trade Commission ( ITC) in a ruling.

US sets duties on Chinese steel tanks

The United States Commerce Department on July 31 set a preliminary countervailing duties rate on steel tanks made in China.

The rate was set at 2.12 percent to 13.94 percent, the US Commerce Department said.

The US will also launch an antidumping probe on steel tanks made in China.

The US Commerce Department is expected to make a final decision later this year.

The duties will not be in place until the US International Trade Commission approves them.

U.S. may levy countervailing duties on stainless steel sinks from China

Amid rising protectionist sentiments, the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday preliminarily determined that Chinese drawn stainless sinks have received countervailing subsidies, signaling that it may impose punitive duties on the products.

In a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation, the department found that Chinese producers/exporters of drawn stainless sinks have received countervailing subsidies of 2.12 percent to 13.94 percent.

Steelmakers' profits plummet

Expert: Govt is pondering tax rebates to help steel industry

The profits of China's large and medium-sized steel companies plunged 95.8 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, as a slowing economy curbed demand and prices were slashed, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.

The total profit of the steel industry was 2.39 billion yuan ($376 million), while the companies that were in the red reported a total loss of 14.25 billion yuan, according to the China Iron and Steel Association.

Adidas suppliers seek redress from factory-closing decision

Chinese suppliers are calling on the clothes manufacturer Adidas AG to compensate them for the consequences of its decision to close the last factory it wholly owns on the mainland, saying that they might otherwise turn to the courts for assistance.

Adidas announced its plan to close the factory last week, saying it will shut down an apparel operation in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in an attempt to become more efficient by restructuring its business in China and the world. It also said it will terminate its contracts with five suppliers in the country.

World Bank report warns of rising food prices 2015 food prices will continue to shock

Released a report on July 30, the rare severe drought and crop conditions in other grain producing areas led the international grain prices, due to low grain stocks, the harvest is good or bad will depend on the global weather conditions , so that the grain easier to produce large fluctuations.

　　31, by the impact of bad USDA crop production report on the state, U.S. corn futures contract intraday to $ 8.19 per bushel, refresh high.