Wall Street Journal, Aug 22, 2020

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(1) Paul Vigna, Stock Gains Go to Fewer People Now; Markets rise, but effect on economy is limited.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/whe ... nnected-11598002220
https://www.marketscreener.com/q ... connected-31154692/

Note:
(a) WSJ locks the report behind paywall.
(b) What is the net worth of top 10 percent of Americans?  

Jonathan Eggleston and Robert Mu, Net Worth of Households: 2016. Census Bureau, October 2019 (report number: P70BR-166).
https://www.census.gov/content/d ... /demo/p70br-166.pdf
(i) Quote: "Net worth (or wealth [ie, wealth = net worth]) * * * provides valuable insights into a household’s economic health. * * * This brief uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) [conducted by Census Bureau] to examine household net worth in 2016.
(ii) At page 3 of this report is
"Table 2. The Value of Household Net Worth Holdings by Percentile: 2013 to 2016 (In 2016 dollars)."

In 2016, the 10th percentile of American households had a net worth of -3,500 in 2016 dollars -- that is, an average household OWES 3,500. On the other hand, 90th percentile, or the top 10 percent of American households, each possesses 952,300 dollars. Another way to look at this is a household needs to earn about half a million dollars a year on average to enter top 10 percent of wealth.


(2) Dawn Lim, US Presses Universities on China Assets.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sta ... x-funds-11598015636

Note: WSJ places the report behind paywall.

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A State Department official this week urged university endowments to divest Chinese stocks and disclose Chinese assets held in their index funds.

China's growing prominence in emerging-markets indexes has steered more money from US institutions into China, putting many endowments at odds with the Trump administration's increasingly confrontational stance toward Beijing.

"Studies have shown that the majority of the US university endowment fund portfolios own PRC stocks listed on American exchanges either directly or indirectly through emerging markets index funds," wrote Keith Krach, the undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, in a Tuesday letter, referring to the People's Republic of China.

Mr Krach asked the schools to tell their campus communities about their investments in China as well as any Chinese stocks they hold in those emerging markets index funds, a move that could pit students and administrators against their endowments.

Although index constituents [index funds' compositions or what stocks the funds hold] are often public, endowments don't usually make all their fund investments public [ie, endowments do not disclose what index funds they (endowments) own].

The State Department doesn't have authority to force institutions to divest from Chinese stocks * * *

The department cited Chinese human-rights violations and the [American] threat to delisting Chinese sticks [because Chinese firms do not allow US regulators to inspect their books or accounting] as reasons for avoiding Chinese investments.

The State Department called alumni of at least one Ivy League university to press r=the issue, a person familiar with the matter said.

Many in the endowment world greeted the letter with shock.

* * *

The three largest emerging market exchange-traded funds [ETFs] that track indexes have some 40% exposure to China, according to research firm CFRA. Their exposure to China has grown over the past three years as index creators FTSE Russell and MSCI Inc. have added China A Shares to the indexes these ETFs track, said Todd Rosenbluth, CFRA's head of fund research.

Meanwhile Chinese stocks appreciated more than other economies', boosting China's weighting in the portfolios of institutions with indexed exposure to broad emerging markets, he said.