Friday, February 11, 2022, 87 financial events
When a rising power has the ability to challenge the existing powers and the existing world order, the risk of major international conflicts rises. This is especially true in times of internal conflict between existing powers, as rising international adversaries often seek to exploit this domestic weakness. The situation is even more dangerous if the rising powers already have military power comparable to those of the existing powers.
♚ The U.S. CPI data exploded, the three major U.S. stock indexes closed down, U.S. bonds jumped, gold rose five times in a row, and base metals rose across the board.
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The S&P 500 closed down 83.10 points, or 1.81 percent, at 4504.08.
The Dow closed down 526.47 points, or 1.47 percent, at 35,241.59.
The Nasdaq closed down 304.73 points, or 2.10 percent, at 14,185.64.
WTI March crude oil futures closed up $0.22, or 0.24 percent, at $89.88 a barrel.
Brent's April crude futures closed down $0.14, or 0.15 percent, at $91.41 a barrel.
NYMEX March gasoline futures closed at $2.6654/gal.
NYMEX March gas futures closed at $3.9590/million BTU.
COMEX April gold futures closed up less than 0.1%, up for the fifth consecutive session at $1837.40 an ounce.
LME copper closed up $195 at $10,254/mt.
LME aluminum closed down $16 at $3250/ ton.
LME zinc closed up $58 at $3703/mt.
Lead closed up $36 at $2,279/mt.
LME nickel closed up $339 at $23,526/mt.
LME tin closed up $1,082 at $44,192/mt.
The main funds of Shanghai and Shenzhen had a net outflow of 19.426 billion yuan yesterday. Northbound funds yesterday turnover of 106.227 billion yuan, net purchase of 4.52 billion yuan, has been 2 consecutive trading days of net purchases. Among them, the net purchase of Shanghai Stock Connect was 5.271 billion yuan, and the net sale of Shenzhen Stock Connect was 751 million yuan.
♚ U.S. CPI in January exceeded expectations, prices rose to 9 percent in some mountain states, market reaction was fierce, and Biden expects U.S. inflation to ease by the end of 2022.
On February 10, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing that the U.S. CPI rose 7.5% year-on-year in January, and the growth rate accelerated again, 7.3% higher than expected, and also higher than the previous value of 7.0%. This is already the data for nine consecutive months of reaching or above 5%. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI rose 6 percent year-over-year, its biggest increase since 1982, slightly above expectations of 5.9 percent and also above expectations of 5.5 percent; core CPI rose 0.6 percent sequentially, slightly above expectations of 0.5 percent, unchanged from the previous value.
America's mountain states have become inflation centers. In January 2021, consumer prices rose 9 percent in these regions, compared to just 1.2 percent a year ago. Many cities in mountainous states, including Arizona, Colorado and Idaho, have seen the highest price gains during the pandemic. According to data released Thursday by the Labor Department, the 7.5 percent national inflation rate in January was already the highest since 1982, and inflation in those states was well above the national average.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose above the 2% mark for the first time since August 1, 2019. Meanwhile, U.S. 10-year Yields refreshed to 2.0049 percent on a refreshed day, approaching the top 2.0578 percent on August 1, 2019, with a current intraday gain of more than 6.00 basis points.
David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said the flattening of the yield curve suggests that the bond market believes there is a risk that the Fed will overreact and plunge the U.S. economy into recession in 2023 or 2024. "They should have tightened monetary policy earlier. They shouldn't have expanded their balance sheets that way. But now, if they overreact, there is danger... The good news is that we expect inflation to fall slightly, and the bad news is that we expect economic growth to slow down significantly, which is what bond market pricing reflects, which is why the yield curve is flattening. "A lot of factors will be dragging down the economy's slowdown at the end of 2022 and 2023, "so I hope they stay calm." According to financial blogger Zerohedge, the last time U.S. Treasury yields jumped so sharply was during the 2008 financial crisis.
Spot gold, which does not offer fixed income and is denominated in U.S. dollars, fell 0.6% to $1,826 after the release of U.S. CPI data, then regained gains and pushed up as high as $1,842, recovering more than half of its decline on Jan. 26. COMEX April gold futures closed up nearly 0.1% to $1837.40 an ounce, up for five consecutive days and a two-week high since Jan. 26.
UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said market participants now expect the Fed to raise interest rates six times this year, which will limit gold's gains but also raise concerns that it may affect future economic growth. In addition, the upward trend of inflation has not changed, which is supporting gold prices. London base metals closed up collectively for two consecutive days, rising for the first time since January 19 on Wednesday.
Shortly after the release of the U.S. January CPI data, President Joe Biden said that while inflation data is high today, forecasters continue to predict a significant easing of inflation by the end of 2022. "Fortunately, we saw positive real wage growth last month and car prices eased ... My Government will continue to do everything in its power to win this fight. We will continue to rebuild our infrastructure and manufacturing so that we can make more products in the United States and strengthen supply chains at home... We will continue to fight costs in areas that have hampered families and working people for decades, from prescription drugs to child care and old-age care to energy costs." The White House said the Fed's recalibrated support policy was appropriate.
♚ Central Bank Releases Financial Statistics for January 2022
♚ In January 2022, foreign institutions bought a net of RMB141.3 billion in bonds
According to data from the Foreign Exchange Trading Center, in January 2022, foreign institutional investors bought bonds for 783.2 billion yuan, sold bonds for 641.9 billion yuan, and bought a net of 141.3 billion yuan. In January, foreign institutional investors reached a total of 1,425.1 billion yuan in spot bond transactions, an increase of 53% month-on-month. As of the end of January 2022, 508 foreign institutional investors entered the market through the settlement agent model, 1 new one was added in January, 734 foreign institutional investors entered the market through the bond connect model, and 7 new ones were added in January.
♚ Guo Shuqing presided over a research symposium to study how financial asset management companies can focus on their main business and actively participate in the reform of small and medium-sized financial institutions
On February 8, Chinese Min min bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission held a symposium on China Orient Asset Management Co., Ltd. to listen to the reports of relevant departments on promoting the disposal of non-performing assets and mergers and acquisitions of small and medium-sized financial institutions, and to study the policies and measures related to financial asset management companies focusing on the disposal of non-performing assets, giving play to their unique functional advantages, and helping to resolve financial risks. The meeting believes that in 2022, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of seeking progress in stability, the financial services industry should further do a good job in supporting high-quality economic development, adhere to the supply-side structural reform as the main line, steadily promote the optimization of the industry structure, realize the light loading of enterprises, effectively promote the expansion of investment, increase consumption, and achieve a virtuous cycle of the national economy. Financial asset management companies should strengthen coordination with other enterprises, adhere to the correct positioning, and make new positive contributions to the transformation of the financial industry and the development of the financial market.
♚ The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other eight departments issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources"
The plan proposes that by 2025, the intensity of industrial solid waste generation in key industries such as iron and steel, nonferrous metals, and chemical industry will decrease, the comprehensive utilization level of bulk industrial solid waste will be significantly improved, the renewable resources industry will continue to develop healthily, and the comprehensive utilization efficiency of industrial resources will be significantly improved. Strive to achieve a comprehensive utilization rate of 57% of bulk industrial solid waste, of which 73% is smelting slag, 73% is industrial by-product gypsum, and the level of comprehensive utilization of red mud is effectively improved. The utilization of major renewable resource varieties exceeds 480 million tons, of which 320 million tons of scrap steel, 20 million tons of waste non-ferrous metals, and 60 million tons of waste paper. The system of regulations, policies and standards for the comprehensive utilization of industrial resources is becoming more and more perfect, the level of technical equipment is significantly improved, the degree of industrial concentration and collaborative development ability are greatly improved, and efforts are made to build an industrial ecology of comprehensive utilization of industrial resources driven by innovation-driven scale and high value, significantly enhanced industrial circulation links, and significantly stimulated by the vitality of collaborative coupling.
The plan proposes to improve the management system and strengthen the traceability management of the whole life cycle of new energy vehicle power batteries. Promote upstream and downstream cooperation in the industrial chain to build recycling channels and build a cross-regional recycling system. Promote the application of waste power batteries in the fields of power backup, charging and replacement. A number of cascade and recycling demonstration projects will be built in key areas such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Cultivate a number of echelon and recycling backbone enterprises, and increase the research and development and promotion of power battery nondestructive testing, automated dismantling, efficient extraction of valuable metals and other technologies.
♚ McDonald's applied for the McMetaverse trademark, and a number of companies in the catering industry entered the metacosm.
McDonald's filed 10 registered trademarks on Feb. 4 to enter the metacosm, including filing for its brand trademark McMetaverse for Virtual World.
McDonald's plans to launch "a virtual restaurant featuring virtual reality" and "a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery."
McDonald's will also compete with other emerging virtual concert organizers, such as Animal Concerts. McDonald's already plans to register trademarks for "online VR concerts" and other entertainment services in its virtual McCafe. But this isn't the first time McDonald's has been associated with the metaverse. On January 31, McDonald's partnered with fashion pioneer Humberto Leon to create an exclusive zodiac clothing collection that hosted visitors at the "McDonald's Gallery" in the VR space and showcased Leon's digital work in the virtual worlds of AltspaceVR and Spatial.
Prior to McDonald's, Panera Bread submitted an application for the "paneravers" virtual restaurant and café on Feb. 3. Other consumer goods brands Nike, Walmart and Skechers have also begun to enter the metacosm in the past three months.
In an interview with Forbes on Feb. 9, trademark registrar Gerben said: "I think in the next 12 months you'll see all the brands you can think of filing these applications. ”
The average time it takes the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to process a trademark application is about nine and a half months, but Gerben believes that McDonald's and Panera Bread will not have any trouble getting trademark approval.
♚ The real estate industry has successively welcomed good: the supervision of pre-sale funds has welcomed the unified regulations of the whole country, and the shortage of capital flow of housing enterprises is expected to be alleviated
It was learned from industry insiders that the relevant departments recently issued relevant opinions on the supervision of pre-sale funds for urban commercial housing. It is understood that the biggest difference between this document and the relevant provisions in the "Measures for the Administration of Pre-sale of Urban Commercial Housing" issued in 1994 is that the provisions on pre-sale funds have been clearly unified nationwide, which in turn is conducive to standardizing the use of pre-sale funds and consolidating the regulatory responsibilities of relevant local departments. The latest documents make it clear that the supervision amount of pre-sale funds is approved by the municipal and county-level housing and urban-rural construction departments according to the project contract and project cost to ensure the funds required for the completion of the project, and the remaining funds after reaching the regulatory quota can be withdrawn and used by housing enterprises.
♚ UK lenders called off ultra-low interest rate mortgage products
A week after the Bank of England announced a rate hike to 0.5%, lenders had called off the cheapest lending product, and the last product with an interest rate below 1% was also pulled out of the market. Lenders face interest increases of hundreds of pounds a year.
According to analyst firm Moneyfacts, fixed-rate trading products with interest rates below 1% have disappeared from the market, falling off a cliff from a high of more than 130 products last October.
The cheapest two-year fixed rate is currently 1.39 per cent, which means that for a £200,000 loan, borrowers will pay £800 more per annum than the 0.99 per cent rate.
Mortgages with interest rates below 1% have resurfaced during the pandemic, and lenders are keen to attract customers. The loan rate war culminated in September last year when Co-operative Bank launched a two-year fixed-rate product with a rate of 0.79%, the lowest of its kind.
However, the re-emergence of products with interest rates below 1% is short-lived. Banks had already raised interest rates since October last year before the Bank of England expected rate hikes.
♚ UK airports launch massive recruitment in response to a resurgence in tourism
With travel rules relaxed for travellers who have already completed vaccination, the UK travel industry is preparing for a return to summer overseas holidays.
In response to the expected increase in travel demand, London Stansted Airport hosted its first on-site job fair in more than two years, and Essex Airport is also looking to fill around 300 job openings.
This is in stark contrast to the scenario in October 2020, when nearly 900 jobs at three UK airports were at risk.
As hopes for a recovery in tourism have intensified, airlines, baggage porters and aircraft cleaning companies have all begun to recruit and hope to get a head start.