Business this week

Business this week

American stockmarkets swiftly recovered from their drubbing on the first trading day of the year, their worst decline since October. Share indices had fallen amid the news about rapidly spreading virulent strains of covid-19, but investors soon shrugged off those concerns. The S&P 500 gained 16% over the whole of last year, and the NASDAQ—bouyed by tech firms—44%. (The big losers were energy shares, which dropped by almost 40% in 2020.) China's stockmarkets are also on a roll. The CSI300 index of shares listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed this week at its highest point since the global financial crisis in 2008. See article.The share prices of Alibaba and Tencent fell amid reports that the Trump administration is considering delisting the Chinese digital stars from American stockmarkets. Donald Trump has issued an executive order forbidding American investors from holding shares in companies with suspected links to the Chinese armed forces. Earlier the New York Stock Exchange got itself in a muddle about delisting three Chinese telecom companies, reversing its decision to remove them. It eventually said it would strike the three from the market, after receiving a stern lecture from the Treasury. See article.In the twilight of his presidency, Mr