Record PDD Plunge Shows Consumers Are Tapped Out, Everywhere

By Ye Xie and George Lei, Bloomberg Markets live reporters and strategists

Even one of China’s best consumer stocks can only defy gravity for so long. PDD Holdings Inc., the e-commerce giant that owns the popular Temu app, plunged 29% on Monday in a record one-day decline after 2Q revenue and outlook both disappointed.

The predicament underscores the difficulty of getting Chinese consumers — buried under mounting debt and burdened by job insecurity — to spend more, even with cutthroat price wars.