The May Day gold "diving", the difficulty of finding train tickets, and the bleak business of the catering industry all happened at the same time during the past May Day holiday, which made many people feel incomprehensible. What is the reason for these phenomena? Let's break it down one by one.
Behind the price of gold plunging hundreds of dollars
During the past May Day holiday, the international gold price fell sharply, falling as much as 100 yuan. There are several main reasons behind this phenomenon:
The situation in the Middle East has eased, and the decline in safe-haven demand is one of the main reasons. The Middle East has always been on the cusp of global developments, and heightened geopolitical risks often trigger an influx of safe-haven funds into the gold market, pushing gold prices higher. However, recent signs of easing in the Middle East, such as progress in negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue and the expected easing of the conflict in Yemen, have alleviated market concerns about geopolitical risks, and safe-haven demand has naturally cooled, putting downward pressure on gold prices.
The cooling of Fed rate hike expectations is also an important reason. The Federal Reserve will hold its interest rate decision meeting in mid-May, and the market had widely expected a 0.5 percentage point rate hike. However, the recent slight pullback in inflation data and signs of a slowdown in the job market may make the Fed's interest rate hike smaller than expected, which weakens the expectation of a stronger dollar and makes the safe-haven asset gold less attractive.
Investor sentiment has also weakened. After the continuous rally, some investors chose to take profits and sell gold assets, which undoubtedly exacerbated the decline in gold prices. Multiple factors such as the easing of the situation in the Middle East, the cooling of the Fed's interest rate hike expectations, and the weakening of investor sentiment have led to a sharp decline in international gold prices during the May Day period.
May Day train tickets are hard to find
During the May Day holiday, many passengers reported that it was difficult to find a train ticket, and the road to grab tickets was quite difficult. The main reason for this phenomenon is that the flow of relatives and students, students, tourists and other passenger flows are highly superimposed during the holidays.
Traditional flow of visitors to relatives. May Day is a statutory holiday, and many people will take advantage of this opportunity to return to their hometowns to visit relatives, which is a fixed flow of passengers during the May Day period every year. The May Day holiday coincides with the holiday time of many colleges and universities, and a large number of students will choose to use this time window to return to their hometowns or travel. In addition, May Day, as the Golden Week holiday, is also a national tourist season, and a large number of tourists will choose to travel by train.
These three passenger flows are highly superimposed during the May Day holiday, resulting in a shortage of train tickets. In addition, the rapid development of high-speed rail in recent years has also diverted the flow of train passengers to a certain extent, exacerbating the shortage of general-speed train tickets. Regional train ticket availability is already tight, and it is even worse when there is a peak in passenger traffic.
The superposition of the three passenger flows of visiting relatives, students and tourism, coupled with the high-speed rail diversion passenger flow and the shortage of regional ticket sources, have jointly led to the situation that it is difficult to find a train ticket during the May Day period.
The current situation of business in the restaurant industry is bleak
During the May Day holiday, many restaurant owners reported that business was bleak and their income fell sharply. The main reasons for this situation are none other than the following:
The general decline in spending power after the holiday is a major reason. After the May Day holiday, many people have overdrawn their spending power, coupled with rising prices and declining disposable income, they will naturally reduce their spending on catering.
The intensification of homogeneous competition is also an important reason. In recent years, the catering industry has developed rapidly, the phenomenon of homogenization has become increasingly serious, and the situation of oversupply has been formed. In this case, consumers have a broader choice, and catering companies have to engage in disorderly competition such as price wars in order to attract customers, which ultimately leads to a decline in industry profits.
The impact of new business formats is also a factor that cannot be ignored. The rise of new formats such as take-out, home delivery, and online ordering has diverted the customer source of traditional catering and caused a certain impact on offline physical catering.
It can be seen that multiple factors such as the decline in consumption capacity after the holiday, the intensification of homogeneous competition, and the diversion of new business sources have jointly led to the bleak situation of the catering industry during the May Day period.
During the May Day holiday, the golden plunge, the difficulty of finding train tickets, and the bleak business of the catering industry happened at the same time, and the reasons behind them are complex. From the macroeconomic situation to the micro market changes, multiple factors are intertwined, creating these phenomena. Macro factors such as the easing of the situation in the Middle East and the cooling of the Fed's interest rate hike expectations have caused gold prices to fall sharply; The superposition of family visits, students, and tourists, coupled with the diversion of high-speed rail and the shortage of regional ticket sources, makes it difficult to find a train ticket; The decline in consumption capacity after the holiday, the intensification of homogeneous competition, and the diversion of customers by new business formats are the main reasons for the bleak business of the catering industry. These phenomena reflect some aspects of the current economic development and deserve our deep consideration.