Ｍａｒｋｅｔ Ｗａｔｃｈ

TO THE POINT: The government introduced a package of financial mea-sures to stimulate bank loans in the wake of the slowing economy. Stateinvestment organs agreed to save the battered mainland stock marketsby buying more shares in open market transactions. China's sovereignwealth fund said it would not make any risky overseas investments andwould wait for the global financial environment to recover. The govern-ment canceled its 10-month food price controls, so that producers nolonger must notify authorities before raising prices. The yuan fell sharplyand unexpectedly against the U.S. dollar in early December, but analystsprojected it would rebound soon. China Development Bank was officiallyincorporated as a commercial lender.