What happened Shares of the Chinese fintech 360 DigiTech (NASDAQ: QFIN) were nearly 12% higher as of 3 p.m. So what While inflation has been surging in the U.S., China's consumer price index only grew 1.5% in December from one year ago, falling short of the 1.8% expected in a Reuters poll, and less than the 2.3% increase in November. "Lower inflation opens room for the government to loosen monetary policies further," Pinpoint Asset Management's chief economist, Zhiwei Zhang, wrote in a recent research note, according to CNBC.