Webull shares plunge after US panel flags China ties
Webull shares fell over 18 per cent after CNBC reported a US House panel found the trading platform structurally tied to China's government, with analysts citing regulatory uncertainty.
Shares in online trading platform Webull fell more than 18 per cent on Wednesday after CNBC reported that a US congressional panel had found the company “tied in structural ways” to China’s government.
The bipartisan House Select Committee on China, in a report set to be released on Wednesday, found “a profound gap” between the company’s public marketing and actual control, the report said. The committee said Webull’s corporate structure, including “software development, data pipelines, and core engineering operations”, was dependent on infrastructure subject directly to Beijing’s laws.
The stock hit its lowest level in nearly four months and was on course for its biggest one-day percentage decline since April last year, if current levels held. Siebert Financial analyst Brian Vieten suspended his buy rating and price target on the stock, saying: “The potential regulatory and operational implications of these findings create a level of uncertainty that we cannot reasonably incorporate into our estimates.”
Webull, the House committee and a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
The House committee’s findings underscore the growing scrutiny in Washington of Chinese links to companies operating in key areas of the US economy, including financial services. Last week, Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat, warned that Beijing could steal AI model weights developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and other top US firms, erasing the US edge over China.
US President Donald Trump’s lavish three-day summit last month for Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered no breakthroughs on thorny issues such as AI, trade, Taiwan and the war with Iran, Reuters reported.