Oil is ruling the price of shares of Chinese companies listed in the U.S. today. Asia's largest refiner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. or Sinopec (SNP), is top gainer among Chinese ADRs while another oil industry giant, offshore specialist China National Offshore Oil Co. or CNOOC Ltd. (CEO) is top loser. What's the reason for such a different reaction to softening oil prices?

There is not much direction to find for U.S. listed Chinese ADRs in Asian trading this morning. Trading in Hong Kong was extremely weak - in fact turnover in Hong Kong recorded the lowest volume this year. Shanghai is obsessed with another mega IPO, this time China Southern Locomotive is going public, raising concerns that already slim liquidity might dry up. This is the time when technical indicators are extremely useful. One of them is the so called Overbought / Oversold indicator, or simply OBOS. This tool looks into stock trading characteristics and determines if a stock went up too much too fast - thus is susceptible for a pull back or just the opposite. The following picture is a screenshot of Chinavestor's OBOS indicator posted for Premium Subscribers before the opening bell. Based on the indicator, three stocks look interesting for daytraders today: NetEase (NTES), China Unicom (CHU) and Baidu,com (BIDU).

We have been paying close attention to the world third largest maker of alumina and the largest aluminum maker in China, Aluminum Corp. of China (NYSE:ACH) or Chalco. This time another analyst, Alfurqan Suranta (307103) took a close look at the company from a fundamental point of view. Find his short summary of findings below.

Sina Corp, a leading Chinese internet portal, will announce 2008 second quarter earnings on August 6 at 9:00 P.M. E.T. after the market close. Sina is part of China's internet portal triumvirate with Sohu.com (SOHU) and Tencent Holdings (0700.HK). Sohu just reported stellar results, largely attributed to an unexpectedly stong performance of an in-house developed online game. Other than the online game business unit, Sina is very similar in terms of operation to Sohu.

Chinavestor.com, an independent stock research firm specializing on Chinese ADRs or China companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, is proud to serve the wider investment community by making previous Newsletters public. Current topic of August 2008 Newsletter is: "Earnings season is on. Let's go stock specific." It is available for subscribers only and will be made public in September. July 2008 Newsletter is about explaining why U.S. equity markets have such a profound impact on the performance of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong (H-shares) and in New York (ADRs). We believe it still carries a lot of useful and relevant information applicable to today's market environment.

Mr. Woo Chan Lee, 43, has been Managing Director and the head of Asia of JL Thornton & Company since 2006. He is the senior advisor to Mr. John L. Thornton, the founder of JL Thornton & Company, and leads the firm's commercial, government and non-profit activities in the region with a focus on China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Australia. Mr. Lee served in the United States Department of State from 1990 to 2006. From 2004 to 2006, he was Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia and led a team of U.S. diplomats responsible for overseeing major aspects of the U.S.-Australia relationship. From 2001 to 2004, he was the Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka, Japan, serving as the senior U.S. government official in western Japan. From 1997 to 2000, he was the First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Beijing, China, where he advised the U.S. President's special envoy for the rule of law and implemented cooperative projects with the Chinese government to assist the strengthening of China's legal system. Mr. Lee received a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, in East Asian Studies from Yale University in 1987.

This announcement is issued pursuant to Rule 13.09(2) of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (the “Company”) and the board of directors of the Company (the “Board”) jointly and severally warrant the truthfulness, accuracy and completeness of the information disclosed herein, and accept the responsibilities for any misrepresentation or misleading statement contained in or material omission from this announcement.

Chinese ADRs have accumulated substantial momentum lately. We like to use different technical indicators to gauge the market and pick up stocks that offer trading opportunities. One of these indicators we use is daily moving averages or DMAs. A stock has to satisfy the following criteria to catch our attention: Current price has to be above 50 DMA - first column under Technical section Current price has to be above 200 DMA- second column under Technical section 10 DMA has to above 30 DMA- third column under Technical section Additionally we like when 50 DMA and 200 DMA curves are positive or show an increasing pattern.

As the following screenshot of the Chinese ADR universe testifies, stocks that are interesting from a technical point of view are BIDU, CHU and SNP on the upside and Sohu on the downside. Baidu.com (BIDU) is on fire since releasing 2008 Q2 earnings last week. The stock slowed down today, gaining only $2.12 or 0.61% today - just in line with Google's trading pattern today. (see chart here). Based on stock characteristic calculations, theoretical high of $394 is not too far for Baidu.

Chinese ADRs are trading mixed today with Baidu.com (BIDU) taking the lead and Sohu.com (SOHU) taking a beating. Easing oil prices helped spur the DJIA to 11,315.00 points by 1:00 P.M. Lowering demand for the black gold became obvious today when statistics showed that U.S. drivers drove 3.5% less miles than last year, the biggest ever drop for the measure during the busy summer holiday season. Customs data showed that demand for oil dropped by 891,000 barrels in June vs. May, a sign that high price of oil is unsustainable. Many expect crude to come back to the $100 level within reasonable time. The greenback strengthened against both the Euro and the yen, adding fuel for the slide in the oil price. Looking at the U.S. listed Chinese stock universe, Baidu.com is shining the brightest today so far. China's premium search engine company is up $4.06 or 1.21% by 1:00 P.M., continuing a rally that seems to have no end. The price of the stock is up 17.8% since June 23 (chart here) when the company announced better then expected second quarter results plus a positive guidance for the upcoming quarter.

Chinese ADRs are trading mixed today after the lunch with NASDAQ listed names shining more. Baidu.com, China's premium search engine company, is up $7.15 or 2.15% at $339.55, extending gains from last week following better-then-expected earnings. As the following table testifies, large cap NYSE listed Chinese ADRs are pulling down the China ADR Index (CAI). The index lost 24.4% year-to-date (YTD) with notable difference between NASDAQ and NYSE listed ADRs. While the market cap weighted overall index lost almost 15% YTD, NASDAQ listed Chinese ADR Index or CQI holds up much better by shedding -15.4% YTD. This performance is not much different then major U.S. indices themselves.