Weekly Market Update - 19 June 2023

TikTok Growth

TikTok will invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next three to five years, as the Chinese behemoth moves to strengthen the presence of its hit video app. The company, which has over 8,000 people in the region, is betting on markets such as Indonesia to spur growth for its e-commerce arm — which lets users buy items while scrolling through its video feed. The company aims to more than quadruple the size of its global e-commerce business to as much as $20 billion in merchandise sales this year, creating a growing challenge to rivals including Amazon and Shopee.

Source: Bloomberg

Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic plans to fly its first commercial passenger space mission as soon as June 27. The flight, called Galactic 01, will include researchers from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy and will mark the beginning of commercial operations for Virgin Galactic after numerous delays. It paves the way for some 800 space tourists who previously bought six-figure tickets to finally make their space dreams come true. Virgin Galactic shares jumped 28% in extended trading in New York.

Source: Bloomberg

China Talks

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent more than seven hours in “candid” talks with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Beijing — much longer than the pair had anticipated — in a bid to bring some semblance of normalcy back to a strained relationship. Blinken is making his trip at a tumultuous time, with the two sides sparring over everything from technology to trade. He has more meetings set for Monday, including with China’s top foreign affairs official Wang Yi. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said he hoped to meet with Xi Jinping in the coming months.

Source: Bloomberg