China housing sales grew at a steady pace in 2019

BEIJING–Housing sales in China grew at a steady pace last year, despite Beijing’s effort to curb market speculation amid an economic slowdown.

By value, housing sales for the year rose 10.3% from 2018, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. That compares with a 10.7% gain in the first 11 months of 2019.

Property investment, including in commercial and residential real estate, rose 9.9%, edging down from 10.2% in the January-to- November period.

Construction starts rose 8.5% on year compared with a 9.3% increase in the first 11 months.

Property investment is one of the few bright spots of the Chinese economy.

Although it is facing the slowest pace of growth in 30 years, Beijing has still reiterated in recent months that it doesn’t intend to use the property sector to stimulate the economy in order to avoid inflating a real-estate bubble.

–Bingyan Wang

Stock Alert: Shares Of Morgan Stanley (MS) Hit 52-Week High

Shares of financial products and services provider Morgan Stanley (MS) recorded a new 52-week high of $57.36 on January 16, following the announcement of its upbeat Q4 results. The stock closed Thursday’s trading session at $56.44, up $3.50 or 6.61%.

On January 16, the company reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.09 billion or $1.30 per share versus $1.36 billion or $0.80 per share in the year-ago quarter.

The latest quarter’s results include an intermittent net discrete tax benefit of $158 million or $0.10 per share, while the year-ago quarter’s results included an intermittent net discrete tax benefit of $111 million or $0.07 per share and severance costs of $172 million associated with a December employee action.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $1.20 per share, compared to $0.73 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.99 per share for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Net revenues grew 27% to $10.86 billion from $8.55 billion last year. The Street was looking for revenues of $9.72 billion for the quarter.

The company’s board declared a $0.35 quarterly dividend per share, payable on February 14, 2020 to common shareholders of record on January 31, 2020.

Richemont sales rise, helped by strong jewelry category

Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA said Friday that third-quarter sales increased despite a severe contraction in the important Hong Kong market, helped by its jewelry division.

The Swiss luxury-goods group CFR, -1.28% said sales for the quarter rose to 4.16 billion euros ($4.64 billion), up from EUR3.92 billion the year previous and slightly higher than analysts’ expectations of EUR4.13 billion, according to a FactSet estimate.

At constant exchange rates, sales grew by 4%, the owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels said.

The company’s all-important jewelry division was the fastest-growing, with sales for the quarter up 6% at constant-exchange rates.

Richemont’s online distributors division, made up of small watch resale business Watchfinder and the much bigger luxury e-tailer Yoox-Net-a-Porter, reported a sales increase of just 2%.

Pricing in online retail became increasingly competitive, and storm damage to a menswear warehouse in Landriano, Italy also disrupted sales, the company said.

Maine news anchor Kim Block leaves station to recover from traumatic brain injury

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A veteran local news anchor from Maine announced this week she is stepping down after 39 years at the station due to a traumatic brain injury she suffered a year ago.

Last January, Kim Block, who works at WGME-TV in Portland, slipped on an icy driveway and struck her head, causing a concussion. Since then she has undergone intensive therapy but still suffers pounding headaches and is sensitive to light and noise, according to the Portland Press Herald.

“Although my recovery has been very positive, it's taking longer than any of us had hoped or expected,” Block wrote in a letter posted on the station's website.

“You can't imagine how difficult it is to leave my anchor role – but the good news, is it's not necessarily goodbye,” she added. “The door is open for another new chapter here at WGME, and I can assure you that if I can – I'll find my way back to you.”

"Our anchors and journalists remain committed to helping Kim on her road to recovery, and once she is ready to return to work our door is open to any and all possibilities for her," she said, according to the Press Herald.

I-Mab Prices IPO At $14.00/ADS, Within Estimated $12 To $15/ADS Range

Shanghai, China-based I-Mab said that it has priced its initial public offering of 7.41 million American Depositary Shares at $14.00 per ADS, within its previously estimated range of $12.00 to $15.00 per ADS.

The ADSs will begin trading on January 17, 2020 on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “IMAB”.

The company has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1.11 million ADSs within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus at $14.00 per ADS.

The company expects that the total gross proceeds from the offering to be about $103.70 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs, or about $119.26 million, if the underwriters choose to exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full.

I-Mab is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel or highly differentiated biologics to treat diseases with significant unmet medical needs, particularly cancers and autoimmune disorders.