The New York Stock Exchange announced this morning that it will be delisting three major Chinese telecom companies, a move that it first announced last week before seeming to reverse course on Monday.
This is all happening in response to the Trump Administration’s broader order barring U.S. investment in companies that support the Chinese military. (Trump has been trying to ban TikTok through a separate order.)
Why the double reversal? To be fair to the NYSE, in its first reversal, the exchange had only said it would allow the telecoms to continue trading while it evaluates whether the executive order applies to them.
Now it seems that the further evaluation is complete. In today’s announcement, the NYSE said it’s making the decision after receiving “new specific guidance” confirming that yes, the executive order does apply to China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom.
As a result, trading of all three stocks will be suspended on the exchange as of 4am Eastern time on Monday, January 11. The move is seen as largely symbolic, since the telecoms’ trading volume via the NYSE only represents a small percentage of their total tradable shares.
