BizChina

Investors and traders in China’s main financial district in Shanghai are talking about the following before the start of trade today:

*The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a third day yesterday, losing 0.6%. U.S. losses were led in part by IT-related companies such as Cisco, and Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. The continuing decline in U.S. shares may add to worries that slowing global economic growth will harm China’s economy and corporate profits.

*The U.S. dollar closed at a one-and-a-half-month high against China’s currency yesterday. A rising dollar may weigh on shares in China. One concern: a serious global downturn could lead investors to seek a safe haven in the U.S. dollar and U.S. assets and reduce holdings in Chinese assets.

*China Mobile and Xinhua News Agency will work together to set up an Internet search engine, creating a competitor in China to Baidu and Google. Baidu, whose shares trade on the Nasdaq, declined by 1.9% in the U.S. in overnight trading. China Mobile’s U.S.-traded depositary shares gained 2.7%.

*China United Network Communications and unlisted Huawei Technologies are working together to develop 3G telecommunications products for the automobile industry.

*Lipper said Thursday that China’s mutual funds had positive returns in July. Stock funds led the way, gaining an average of 9.2%. The best-performing stock fund was the Everbright Pramerica’s small and medium sized company fund.

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Sina Corp, the operator of China's third-most visited website, said second-quarter profit rose 89 percent after the company sold more online advertising in the world's biggest Internet market.

Net income increased to $25.2 million, or 38 cents a share, from $13.3 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier, Sina said in a statement Thursday. That beat the $18.5 million average of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sina raised prices for advertisers by more than 10 percent, capitalizing on demand from companies marketing their products and services in the world's third-biggest economy. The Shanghai- based Internet operator's website trails only Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd in popularity among Chinese Internet users.

The LV Shanghai flagship store opens on April 28, 2010.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, often dubbed the Oracle of Omaha, has seen the future of fashion in the most unlikely of places, bearing a "Made in China" label better known for its cheap than chic.

"I threw away the rest of my suits," beams Buffett in the 2007 video, adding that he and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are fans of Chinese suit maker Trands and would be great salesmen for the company based in the northeast Chinese city of Dalian.

Trands is one of a handful of emerging Chinese brands that someday hope to take on the likes of Gucci, Armani and Prada in the lucrative luxury goods market.

A top South Korean diplomat to China has said that China and South Korea are likely to launch negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) next year, a move Chinese analysts said will help reshape trade in East Asia.

Yu Woo-ik, South Korea's ambassador to China, told China Daily in an exclusive interview that the two Asian nations "are expected to initiate official FTA talks in 2011", after a four-year feasibility study among governments, industrial associations and academies from the two countries was wrapped up recently.

Japan, China and South Korea have the largest, second-largest and fourth-largest economies in Asia, accounting for about 70 percent of the Asian economy and 18.6 percent of the global economy.

The free trade zone, if established, will hold a consumer population of 1.5 billion. It will be the third-largest economic area in the world, only after the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union.