Hong Kong Protests will Continue; Lam to withdraw extradition bill

After a summer filled with protests, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam will announce the withdrawal of the Chinese extradition bill at 6pm local time.  The MSCI Hong Kong Index posted its best gain since 2011 with a 5.4% surge, a rally that was much higher than three standard deviations.  While the extradition bill was initially what sparked a tumultuous summer in Hong Kong, protesters’ demands have expanded to also include full democracy and police accountability.

Violence might ease in Hong Kong, but the protests are likely to continue until we see the other four demands met; Beijing accepting of Lam’s resignation, an inquiry into police brutality, the release for those who have been arrested and more democratic freedoms.  Today’s withdrawal is quite the pivot from yesterday’s comments from China’s top office that hinted they could unilaterally declare a state of an emergency.

Hong Kong protesters seem focused on a September 8th rally that will petition US congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights decency, a possible major complication that could derail longer-term solution.  Beijing’s concession here appears to have happened too late and we may just see temporary reprieve with Hong Kong assets.  The Hong Kong dollar is higher by 0.06%.

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.