What's going on?

US stock exchanges are feeling pretty unfulfilled by a sudden slowdown in business from China, so they�re looking elsewhere in Asia to get their fix.

What does this mean?

Chinese government crackdowns are pushing more of the country�s firms to cancel plans to list their stocks on US exchanges, since the prospect of regulators getting involved isn�t exactly something to look forward to. Bad news for US stock exchanges: a lack of new Chinese listings means their revenues are at risk, so they�re looking for companies from other Asian countries to pick up the slack. But that�s hardly the norm: more Chinese companies listed in the US this year alone than Asian-Pacific companies have over the past decade. Still, that hasn�t put the exchanges off: they reckon that, thanks to large populations and growth potential, companies in countries like India and Indonesia could be big opportunities for new listings going forward.

Why should I care?

For markets: Once bitten, twice shy.
Chinese companies might have dodged a bullet: data from Bloomberg on Wednesday showed more than half of this year�s initial public offerings in the US are now trading below their initial prices (tweet this). In fact, on average, stocks of companies that went public in 2021 are up less than 2% � way less than the 26% rise of the country�s stock market. That�s got some analysts predicting that investors, wary about getting burnt twice, might be extra cautious about investing in any new listings going forward.

The bigger picture: Investors love China.
If there�s one thing investors don�t seem cautious about, it�s investing in China: data out this week showed that an index tracking Chinese internet companies received more than twice as much net investment as any other US thematic index since mid-February. That might have something to do with China�s �common prosperity� drive: it�s wiped over $1 trillion from the market value of Chinese stocks since February, so investors can snap them up more cheaply.