US-listed Chinese stocks crash to decade lows as concerns about the world's second-largest economy mount

• The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index is trading near its lowest level since 2013.
• It's plummeted 14% already this year amid signs the world's second-largest economy is faltering.

US-listed Chinese stocks have slumped to their lowest level in over a decade as Beijing struggles to reverse deflation, revive growth, and end a seemingly never-ending property-market crisis.

The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index – which tracks the price of shares in Alibaba, Baidu, and 67 other US-listed Chinese companies – has dropped over 14% in 2024, extending its losses for the past 12 months to 30%.

Other than a brief blip in October 2022, the gauge hasn't traded at such a low level since June 2013, according to data from Refinitiv.

Chinese stocks have tumbled at the start of this year, worsening a multi-year rout that's wiped out over $6 trillion in valuation since 2021.

Figures published last week showed that the world's second-largest economy expanded by 5.2% last year, slightly above the official target, but China is also battling deflation, sluggish demand, and spiking youth unemployment.

Major property developers Evergrande and Country Garden have also collapsed in recent years after piling up huge debt, sparking a crisis that economists have warned could take over a decade to fix.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng index has also had a rough start to 2024, tumbling nearly 9% to trade at its lowest level since 2009.

In contrast, the US's benchmark S&P 500 set a new all-time closing high Friday. The AI investing craze has fueled massive gains for US Big Tech stocks like Microsoft and Nvidia over the past year, while investors are also betting that the Federal Reserve will soon start slashing interest rates with inflation now close to the central bank's 2% target.