Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu Stocks Rise. China’s Economy Shows Resilience to Trump Tariffs.

The Chinese economy has been hampered by weak consumer spending for years, spurred by slumping property prices slashing the value of people’s savings. ((David Becker/Getty Images))

China’s economy slowed less than feared in the second quarter, showing a resilience to U.S. tariffs. But there were concerns as consumers in the world’s second largest economy continued to tighten their belts.

Investors appeared to take it well with shares of large Chinese companies rising early Tuesday—and there is hope Beijing will consider further economic stimulus at the coming Politburo meeting in the wake of the data.

Mixed economic figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics released Tuesday showed its gross domestic product grew by 5.2% in the quarter ended June 30, which was slightly more than expected and indicated the country was weathering U.S. tariffs.

However, the statistics body also released retail sales numbers for the same quarter that came in at 4.8%—below the 5% expected by economists, according to FactSet.

The Chinese economy has been hampered by weak consumer spending for years, spurred by slumping property prices slashing the value of people’s savings.

Economic and fiscal stimuli by China such as subsidies, infrastructure investments, and monetary easing have brought some relief, but most consumers are still cautious on spending. Tuesday’s fresh economic data have analysts revisiting the topic of government intervention, especially as Chinese growth is largely expected to slow down further in the second half of 2025.

Investors are paying close attention to any signs that Chinese authorities could launch more stimulus measures, especially at the coming Politburo meeting later this month.

Goldman Sachs, however, doesn’t see any broad-based, significant stimulus in the near term, analysts led by Andrew Tilton wrote in a Tuesday note. “Instead, we expect incremental, targeted easing to help stem the property downturn and mitigate labor market pressures in the second half.”

American depositary receipts of e-commerce players Alibaba and JD.com rose 5.1% and 2.9% in early trading Tuesday. ADRs of Videogame developer Tencent gained 3% while those of search-engine provider Baidu jumped 6.9%.

The S&P 500 was up 0.2%.

Shares may also be getting a boost from news that the U.S. will effectively allow chip maker Nvidia to continue to export certain artificial-intelligence chips to Chinese customers, indicating a softer stance on the country by the Trump administration following months of heightened tensions.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com