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Workers in Shanghai's Changning district put up fencing on Oct. 7, 2022, around a neighborhood lockdown after reports of new Covid cases. Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images BEIJING — New Covid cases are spiking across mainland China, prompting many local authorities to tighten controls on movement. About 4.8% of China's gross domestic product was negatively affected by Covid controls as of Monday, according to a model from Nomura. That's up from 4.3% a week ago. Three of Shanghai's downtown districts on Monday ordered entertainment venues such as internet cafes to close temporarily, according to official announcements. On Tuesday, many schools in the central Chinese city of Xi'an cancelled in-person classes for most students, according to a local news outlet. A hashtag about the sudden closures was one of the top-trending items on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. Xi'an‘s education department did not immediately respond to a CNBC requ...

A filing Monday showed Chinese internet tech giant Alibaba is another step closer to letting mainland Chinese investors trade its shares directly. Kuang Da | Jiemian News | Visual China Group | Getty Images BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is making Hong Kong a " primary&quot ; listing for its shares, paving the way for mainland China investors to trade the stock directly . The Hong Kong Stock Exchange acknowledged Monday Alibaba's application to convert locally traded shares to primary listing from the current secondary status, according to a filing. It is expected to take effect by the end of 2022, the document said. Gaining primary status in Hong Kong would make Alibaba eligible for inclusion in a stock connect program with mainland China. The stock briefly rose more than 2% in Hong Kong trading Tuesday morning. "We expect that the Primary Conversion will allow us to broaden our investor base and facilitate incremental liquidity, and in particular expan...