“Do not SELL lower low, Do not BUY lower high”

1. China’s Exports Tumble Again in Fresh Sign of Economic Trouble — China’s exports fell for the sixth straight month, adding to pressure on Beijing to boost spending at home as a big rise in global interest rates and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East weigh on the world economy. Chinese exports fell 6.4% in October compared with a year earlier, to $275 billion, China’s General Administration of Customs said Tuesday, a steeper decline than the 6.2% fall recorded in September. Diminishing exports show global demand for Chinese goods is subdued as consumers and businesses contend with slowing growth and higher borrowing costs. Other Asian export powerhouses, such as South Korea and Taiwan, have also reported months of feeble overseas sales.
2. Citrix Owner Becomes Latest U.S. Company to Retreat From China — Cloud Software Group, which owns enterprise-software brand Citrix, is ceasing business transactions in China, becoming the latest U.S. company to pull back from China. Cloud Software Group is the latest U.S. technology company to withdraw or significantly shrink its business operations in China as the economy slows and national-security and data-related concerns grow.
This year, Microsoft’s LinkedIn closed down its China-focused jobs app, following its exit from its social-media business in the country. Salesforce shifted to a model in which it relies on a local partner to operate some of its products and services in China. It also laid off staff in mainland China and Hong Kong and closed its Hong Kong office, The Wall Street Journal reported.
3. Jerome Powell Outlines Cautious Approach to Raising Rates or Declaring End to Hikes — Fed Chair Jerome Powell said it was premature for the central bank to declare a conclusive end to its historic interest-rate increases of the past two years even though he didn’t make an argument for raising rates further right now. The Fed has raised interest rates this year to a 22-year high to combat inflation by slowing economic activity. Officials are committed to achieving a rate setting that is “sufficiently restrictive” to bring inflation down to its 2% goal over time. “We are not confident that we have achieved such a stance,” Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery at a conference in Washington on Thursday. Powell said officials would monitor economic conditions closely to avoid the risk of having raised rates too high and the risk of having been “misled by a few good months of data.”
4. US Credit-Rating Outlook Changed to Negative by Moody’s — the rating assessor lowered the outlook to negative from stable while affirming the nation’s rating at Aaa, the highest investment-grade notch. Amid higher interest rates, without measures to reduce spending or boost revenue, fiscal deficits will likely “remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability,” Moody’s said. Moody’s is the only of the three main credit companies with a top rating on the US after Fitch Ratings downgraded the US government in August following the latest debt-ceiling battle. S&P Global Ratings stripped the US of its top score in 2011 amid that year’s debt-limit crisis.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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