From one of this week's editions of U.S. News Invested, here are their latest stock recommendations -- hot China stocks to buy after the trade war ends. Worth a look, I thought it was very topical to discuss various investment opportunities from this trade war that is widely seen as hurting investment opportunities ...

Invested

Advice, rankings and stock market news for investors.

July 16, 2019

TODAY'S BIG IDEA

E-Commerce Stocks to Buy After the Trade War

Stocks have been shaky in recent weeks after the U.S. and China exchanged their latest rounds of trade war tariff hikes. Chinese stocks have been hit particularly hard by the trade war – for instance, the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (ticker: FXI) is up 8%, but is far underperforming the S&P 500, which is up a staggering 20% since Jan. 1.

Despite concerns about the trade war’s impact on China’s economic growth, China’s e-commerce business is booming. Chinese online retail is a massive long-term investment opportunity, but buyers may still need to be selective given trade war pressures.

Here are seven Chinese e-commerce stocks KeyBanc analyst Hans Chung is watching.

1. Alibaba Group Holding (BABA). If the trade war is hurting growth in China, you sure wouldn’t know it by looking at Alibaba’s numbers. Alibaba just reported 50% earnings growth and 51% revenue growth in the most recent quarter, including 75% growth in cloud services revenue. In addition, Alibaba reported 721 million mobile active users, up 18% from a year ago.

Chung says feed monetization could drive double-digit incremental revenue growth and Alibaba’s Freshippo retail store margins should continue to improve over time. KeyBanc has an “overweight” rating and $240 price target for BABA stock.

2. Pinduoduo (PDD). Pinduoduo is a Chinese e-commerce company that allows customers to capitalize on group buying deals, mostly via the Tencent (TCEHY) WeChat mobile app. Chung says Pinduoduo’s unique team-purchase model helps streamline the value chain for customers and its early success in consumer-to-manufacturing sales is promising.

Chung said Pinduoduo is a solid long-term investment given the company’s massive scale, its potential for monetization, its differentiated artificial intelligence technology and its huge total addressable market. He says increased ad load and improved targeting should help drive monetization. KeyBanc has an “overweight” rating and $32 price target for PDD stock. – Wayne Duggan

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Recommended reading on this topic:

How to Invest During a Trade War
7 Great ETFs to Buy to Invest in China
8 Best China-Focused Investments to Buy and Hold
7 Stocks With the Most to Lose in China
9 Dividend Stocks Safe From a Trade War
Winners and Losers in the U.S.-China Trade War

TODAY'S FINANCIAL ROUNDUP

Congress looking into Facebook's currency plans. Facebook's (FB) ambitious plan to create a financial eco-system based on a digital currency faces questions from lawmakers, as it's shadowed by negative comments from President Donald Trump, his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve. Congress begins two days of hearings today on the currency planned by Facebook, to be called Libra, starting with the Senate Banking Committee. Meanwhile, a House Judiciary subcommittee will extend its bipartisan investigation of the market power of Facebook, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL).

Global stocks mixed in lackluster trading. Global shares were little changed and mixed in quiet trading today amid a lack of fresh market-moving news as investors looked ahead to earnings season. U.S. shares also looked set for a slow start, with the future contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average nearly unchanged. S&P 500 futures gained less than 0.1%.

Deals and protests during Amazon Prime Day. Amazon's Prime Day is coming with a wave of deals — and protests. The company's fifth annual Prime Day now stretches two days, Monday and today, invented as an effort to try to drum up sales during sluggish summer months and sign up more users for its Prime loyalty program. The Seattle-based e-commerce behemoth said it is offering more than a million deals. Amazon's own products are usually among the strongest sellers. But this year, some used the high-profile event as a way to garner attention for their protests against Amazon.

Wall Street finds blockchain hard to tame, despite promise. Companies, including banks, large retailers and technology vendors, are investing billions of dollars to find uses for blockchain, a digital ledger used by cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. But a review of 33 projects involving large companies announced over the past four years and interviews with more than a dozen executives involved with them show the technology has yet to deliver on its promise.

Dividend stocks to buy when you're playing defense. The stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride this year. At one point this spring, the S&P 500 lost more than $1.1 trillion in aggregate market capitalization in less than two weeks before rebounding to new record highs. In such an uncertain international economic environment, reliable dividends are one of the few things investors can count on. Here are seven high-yielding dividend stocks to buy for investors looking to play defense, according to Bank of America.

How to write your unique value proposition. A unique value proposition is an elevator pitch for financial advisors that encapsulates the benefit you bring to your clients and what sets you apart from the competition. Every financial advisor should have a UVP, but creating one can be easier said than done. Here are seven tips for creating your unique value proposition so you can capture your unique value and share it with clients.

Earnings today. Earnings season kicks into gear this week, with announcements expected today from CSX Corp. (CSX), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), United Airlines (UAL) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC).

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EXPLORE STOCK AND FUND RANKINGS

Top China Region Exchange-Traded Funds

Fund Name	Net Assets	1 Year Return
Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF PGJ	$195.5M	-20.26%
WisdomTree China ex-State-Owd Entpr ETF CXSE	$142.6M	-9.73%
SPDR® S&P China ETF GXC	$1.2B	-8.10%
iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF EWH	$2.2B	9.21%
iShares MSCI China A ETF CNYA	$157.9M	7.74%
iShares MSCI China ETF MCHI	$4.3B	-8.33%
iShares MSCI Taiwan Capped ETF EWT	$3.0B	-0.04%
KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A ETF KBA	$710.8M	6.93%
Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A ETF ASHR	$1.7B	7.19%
iShares China Large-Cap ETF FXI	$5.4B	0.14%