Hong Kong’s stocks fell, sending the Hang Seng Index (HSI) to an eighth day of losses, on speculation the housing market may cool after the government raised the minimum downpayment for home buyers.
Sino Land Company Ltd. and New World Development Co. declined more than 1.5 percent after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said buyers of homes costing more than HK$6 million ($770,000) will have to increase up-front payments. Beijing Capital International Airport Co. tumbled 5.1 percent following the announcement of ticket prices for a new bullet train linking Shanghai and Beijing.
The Hang Seng fell 0.8 percent to 22,237.9 as of 9:59 a.m. local time. The measure slid 2.3 percent last week, the most in a month.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Tokyo at lthomasson@bloomberg.net.
Need a Light Bulb? Uncle Sam Gets to Choose: Virginia Postrel
If you want to know why so many Americans feel alienated from their government, you need only go to Target and check out the light bulb aisle. Instead of the cheap commodities of yesteryear, you’ll find what looks like evidence of a flourishing, technology-driven economy.
There are “ultrasoft” bulbs promising “softer soft white longer life” light, domed halogens for “bright crisp light” and row upon row of Energy Smart bulbs -- some curled in the by-now- familiar compact fluorescent form, some with translucent shells that reveal only hints of the twisting tubes within.
It seems to be a dazzling profusion of choice. But, at least in California, where I live, this plenitude no longer includes what most shoppers want: an inexpensive, plain-vanilla 100-watt incandescent bulb. Selling them is now illegal here. The rest of the country has until the end of the year to stock up before a federal ban kicks in. (I have a stash in storage.) Over the next two years, most lower-wattage incandescents will also disappear.
The rest is here: