Latest news updates: Alibaba’s Jack Ma travels to Spain in first trip outside China since failed Ant IPO

Inflation: The UK and Eurostat will release their core price index for September on Wednesday, giving a glimpse of how much prices may have risen as supply chain disruptions and energy costs mount. Bank of England governor George Bailey struck a more hawkish tone over the weekend, so a strong reading will further fuel expectations that the UK central bank will tighten policy.

Germany: Europe’s biggest economy will release its industrial producer price index for September, giving another indication of how recent disruptions may have affected the economy after several below expectation data releases in recent weeks.

Results: Dutch semiconductor producer ASML, French supermarket chain Carrefour and Swiss pharma giant Roche are among the European companies reporting on their third quarter performance on Wednesday. London-listed food delivery group Deliveroo will also issue a trading update.

Jack Ma is vacationing in Spain, according to two people familiar with his travel plans, marking the Chinese internet tycoon’s first confirmed trip outside China since he ran afoul of the country’s financial regulators late last year.

The Hong Kong-traded shares of Alibaba, Ma’s e-commerce group, rose 8 per cent on Wednesday morning.

Ma has made only a handful of low-key appearances in China since the initial public offering of Ant Group, his online finance platform, was blocked by President Xi Jinping in November, shortly after the tycoon criticised Chinese financial regulation in a public speech.

Before travelling to Europe, Ma had been in Hong Kong, where he has a luxury home, according to people familiar with his itinerary. One said Ma was spending time in Spain aboard his luxury yacht Zen in Port d’Andratx, Mallorca.

Ma’s overseas trip was first reported by the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba. The Hong Kong newspaper said he was on a “study tour” of Spanish agricultural regions.

Prices of new-built residential properties fell on average in major Chinese cities in September, government data show, in a clear sign that the sector has been slowing down.

Prices decreased compared to the previous month in 36 of China’s largest cities, including Guangzhou and Chengdu. A weighted average across the 70 major cities calculated by Goldman Sachs found a 0.5 per cent fall in prices on an annualised basis. The last time prices tumbled was in April 2015.

On Tuesday, government data showed that output in the real estate sector, a crucial engine of China’s growth, contracted in September compared to the year before. It was the first such contraction since the beginning of the pandemic.

China’s residential property sector has been hit in recent months by Beijing’s efforts to cool off speculation and uncertainty over the fate of Evergrande, which has missed a series of bond payment deadlines and faces a formal default this weekend.

On Monday, Hong Kong-listed Sinic defaulted on $246m worth of bonds, following a $206m default from luxury developer Fantasia Holdings earlier in the month.

The threat of intervention by Beijing has sent Chinese coal prices tumbling as authorities seek to bring electricity prices down and end an energy crisis that has hobbled the country’s economic growth.

The National Development and Reform Commission said on Tuesday it had organised a meeting with China’s largest coal producers and that it would “study specific measures to intervene in coal prices” if they kept rising.

Record prices have made it impossible for many of China’s coal-fired power stations to turn a profit in recent months, forcing them to cut output and resulting in widespread power shortages.

The NDRC’s threat of intervention is the first official signal to have any real impact on coal prices, prompting thermal coal contracts traded on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange to fall the maximum 8 per cent on Tuesday.

Thermal coal futures continued to tumble on Wednesday with another limit-down fall of 8 per cent to Rmb1,755 a tonne. The CSI Coal index of major miners listed in China dropped 8.5 per cent.

China relies on thermal coal for about 70 per cent of its electricity but Beijing has been closing down coal mines for pollution and safety reasons and local governments this year have throttled the use of thermal coal in an effort to meet strict emissions targets. That has led to a shortfall in domestic supply and resulted in rocketing prices as winter approaches.

Asian equities tracked US markets higher on Wednesday morning, buoyed by strong investor sentiment over corporate earnings.

On Tuesday, Wall Street’s S&P 500 index closed 0.7 per cent higher in New York; the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite also ended the day up 0.7 per cent. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed up 0.3 per cent.

In bond markets, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note — which moves inversely to its price — rose to 1.64 per cent, its highest trading level since May.

Asian equities looked set to track the gains, with Japan’s Topix and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 both rising 1 per cent in morning trading on Wednesday and South Korea’s Kospi gaining as much as 0.6 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index kicked off 1.1 per cent higher at the open. China’s CSI 300, meanwhile, opened flat.

The gains marked another positive day for Asian markets, which have been largely rising this week.

“Asian equities’ upbeat mood extended to Europe and the US [on Tuesday], amid continuing strength in company earnings,” said analysts at Westpac. “Today’s calendar is light ahead of UK and Eurozone Sep CPI, the Fed Beige Book and another slew of Fed speakers.”

Members of Congress have recommended that the US House of Representatives hold Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former strategist, in criminal contempt for his refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.

The special committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to recommend the measure, which is expected to advance to the full House for a vote. Democrats control the House by a narrow margin.

The committee’s decision came one day after Trump sued lawmakers and the National Archives in an attempt to block the release of nearly 50 documents relating to his presidency. Trump and his allies have so far refused to co-operate with the panel, which was formed this summer to probe what happened on January 6, when mobs of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in a violent clash that left at least five people dead.

In the lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, Trump and his attorneys argued the president could withhold the documents under “executive privilege”, a legal standard that allows for the confidentiality of some presidential communications.

Trump was impeached for “incitement to insurrection” for his actions on January 6, but later exonerated after a Senate trial in which just seven Republican senators voted to convict.

The January 6 committee is led by Democrats and counts just two Republicans — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — among its members, after House Republican leadership refused to sign on to the panel.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath will leave the fund and return to Harvard University in January 2022 after a three-year term.

Gopinath’s public service leave of absence from Harvard University’s economics department had been extended by one year on an exceptional basis. She intends to return to the Ivy League university when her public service ends, the IMF said on Tuesday.

Gopinath in 2019 became the first woman appointed to the role of IMF chief economist. During her tenure co-authored the Pandemic Paper that led to the creation of a task force to help end the Covid-19 public health crisis. She also helped set up a climate change team inside the fund.

“We benefited immensely from her sharp intellect and deep knowledge of international finance and macroeconomics as we navigate through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, said.

The IMF said it would soon begin a search for her successor.

Gopinath’s departure comes at a tricky time for the IMF, which opted to keep Georgieva as its head after she was accused by a World Bank inquiry of directing efforts to artificially boost China’s ranking in the lender’s annual Doing Business report.

United Airlines reported an adjusted net loss of $300bn as the airline struggled with the rise of the Delta variant.

The Chicago company’s revenue was down 32 per cent compared to the third quarter of 2019, to $7.8bn.

“The recovery was delayed by the Delta variant, but the United team remains focused on our long-term vision — and not getting sidetracked by near-term volatility,” said chief executive Scott Kirby.

Despite the operating loss, the airline swung to profitability with continued help from US taxpayers. United received $1.1bn in the third quarter from payments under the US Cares Act, which gave grants and loans to carriers to buffer them from the worst of their pandemic losses.

United reported net income of $500m.

United said it expects that fourth-quarter capacity will fall 23 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, while revenue will fall by up to 30 per cent.

China policy rate Traders and analysts polled by Reuters mostly expect the People’s Bank of China to hold its benchmark lending rate steady when the decision is announced today.

China house prices The House Price Index, compiled from mortgage data from the National Bureau of Statistics by Thomson Reuters, will be released today. Yesterday, government figures showed that the real estate sector shrank year-on-year for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Japan trade balance The Ministry of Finance will release Japan’s trade balance figures for September. Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect the trade deficit to shrink but remain negative.

The breakout success of Squid Game helped Netflix double its net new subscribers in the third quarter to 4.4m, exceeding forecasts and signalling a strong finish to the year.

The South Korean hit drama, released in September, has been Netflix’s biggest-ever series launch, reaching more than 111m viewers around the world.

Most new subscriber growth came outside the US, with the Asia-Pacific region contributing 2.2m paid net new subscribers.

Netflix’s growth slowed in the first half of the year as Covid-19 related production delays dented the number of new shows on offer. The company said it expects to see the “positive effect of a stronger slate” in the second half of the year, including Squid Game, the second season of The Witcher and the debut of the action film Red Notice.

The streaming service projected it would add 8.5m new subscribers by the end of the year, higher than the 8.33m expected by Wall Street.

Netflix shares, which are up 18 per cent year-to-date, were little changed in after-hours trade.