There’s pandemonium on China’s newspaper front pages today: the stock market is falling even faster than the sliding temperatures. So there’s graphics of bears and plunging arrows galore. The Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报) from Guangdong chose today to dispense with any graphics and simply put the cold, hard truth writ large on its front page: “The weather is really cold, but the stock market is even colder”. There’s some fun stock market crash graphics to admire on various other papers though.
The Southern Metropolis Daily explains what all the fuss is about. Yesterday the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index finally dropped below the psychological barrier of 2,000. Both of China’s stock markets (Shanghai and Shenzhen) opened low and went lower yesterday, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index reaching a new low of 1990.34 (lower even than the 2009 low). The A-share stock market in China has now lost 9.47% in value this year, the highest rate of loss in the world.
Right next to this description of the drama unfolding on the stock market, the Southern Metropolis Dailyhas placed a prominent weather report on its front page with the following grim warning:
Cold wind, cold rain and cold air are causing the temperature to drop precipitously. Yesterday, 36 towns and counties in Guangdong put out warnings for very cold weather. Since the start of autumn, Guangzhou has yesterday also recorded the lowest temperatures of below ten degrees centigrade.
By its reckoning, China’s stock market is even colder than this. But really, ten degrees? Thats not cold at all.
Here’s how a few other papers today portrayed the pandemonium on the stock market, cartoon bears and all:
Links and sources
Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市报): 1991.17A股跌回1时代; 9.9℃ 入秋以来广州昨天最冻人