Topic: How To Invest

Q: Please, may I get your opinion on HSBC? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

A: HSBC Holdings plc (ADR), $24.62, symbol HSBC on New York (ADRs outstanding: 4.1 billion; Market cap: $104.1 billion; www.hsbc.com), is a U.K.-based bank and financial services company. The bank is one of the more geographically diverse in the industry, with operations across 64 countries and territories around the world. While this is a point of strength under normal conditions, it presents a challenge now, since the bank earns a substantial portion of its profits between Hong Kong and mainland China. It could get caught in the middle of the Hong Kong-related tension between China on the one hand, and the U.S., the U.K. and their allies on the other. The coronavirus outbreak is also making operating conditions difficult for HSBC, along with the rest of the global financial industry. Although governments in some of the countries where HSBC operates are beginning to ease lockdown orders, it will be difficult to assess how the economic damage caused by the pandemic will affect…