JD’s Results Fail to Impress as Chinese Economic Fears Persist

(Bloomberg) — JD.com Inc.’s quarterly revenue rose 5.1%, a moderate expansion that suggests Chinese consumers are only cautiously spending again as Beijing tries to revitalize the economy.

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Sales rose to 260.4 billion yuan ($36 billion) for the three months ended September, barely surpassing the average estimate for 259.7 billion yuan. Net income jumped 48% to 11.7 billion yuan. Its shares rose about 2% in pre-market trading in New York.

The moderate expansion in revenue, coming off a low year-ago base, suggest an initial recovery in segments of the Chinese consumer economy such as electronics. E-commerce pioneers JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are bellwethers for Chinese consumption, which has struggled to recover since the country emerged from nearly three years of Covid curbs.

On Wednesday, Tencent Holdings Ltd. described tentative signs of a bounce-back after Beijing unveiled a plethora of stimulus measures, but warned that a fuller recovery will take time.

“We are very encouraged by a more supportive policy environment that aims to realize the huge potential of consumption in China,” Chief Executive Officer Sandy Xu told analysts. “While we see consumer sentiment start to improve, we understand it takes time for the benefits of the policies to feed through,” she added, echoing Tencent executives just a day prior.

Investors remain keen for clues to the trajectory of the world’s No. 2 economy.

A spike in home appliance sales, coupled with the boost provided by recent government stimulus, should allow the retailer to take a more aggressive tack in the year ahead, analysts at Benchmark said.

In the longest on-record Singles Day shopping season that wrapped this week, Beijing-based JD reported robust sales, though it avoided reporting actual transactions. The number of shoppers increased by more than 20% and live-streaming orders rose 3.8 times compared with last year’s event, though analysts said it’s too early to call a recovery.

“We expect JD to leverage improving consumer sentiment and pursue growth more aggressively, evidenced by the early launch of its Double 11 promotion,” Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang wrote. “While this may limit earnings upside in Q4, it positions the company well for accelerated growth.”

Longer-term, the company continues to wrestle biggest rival Alibaba and newer competitors such as Temu-owner PDD Holdings Inc. and ByteDance Ltd in e-commerce. Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall likely gained market share from JD.com during the annual shopping bonanza, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

D.com’s retail margin topping consensus for the fifth straight quarter raises the likelihood the company will prioritize profitability over gross merchandise value gains through December, even if China’s retail sales growth momentum weakens following the recent Singles’ Day shopping festival. This may soothe market concerns about lower-than-expected margin expansion in 2025.

– Catherine Lim and Trini Tan, analysts

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