Markets began trading mostly lower today, with investors focusing on at least 3 crucial news and factors that may impact today's and this week's trading.
Asian stocks ended the session in the red as the rally in China faltered and attention shifted to a batch of US growth and inflation data due to be released in the coming days.
“Mixed and hesitant are good words to describe today's markets,” according to Matt Simpson, a senior market strategist at City Index.
Meanwhile, the global economy is expected to see a soft landing, financial chiefs said in a draft closing statement of this week's G20 meeting in Brazil, citing faster-than-expected disinflation as one of the upside risks.
In this financial context full of ideas and uncertainties, the markets today start from 3 pieces of news that are absolutely worth knowing to understand the dominant sentiment on the stock exchanges.
1.
Country Garden Liquidation Chinese shares also slipped as concerns over the real estate sector continued after a liquidation petition was filed against developer Country Garden.
The indebted Chinese giant said on Wednesday that a liquidation petition has been filed against it for non-payment of a $205 million loan, clouding its debt recovery prospects and undermining Beijing's efforts to restore confidence in the real estate sector.
A liquidation of Country Garden would worsen the sector's crisis, put its onshore financiers to the test and could delay the prospect of a recovery not only of the real estate market, but of the entire Chinese economy.
The petition comes a month after China Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted property developer with more than $300 billion in liabilities, was liquidated by a Hong Kong court.
2.
Apple cancels electric car project Apple is taking its time with its electric vehicle ambitions.
The iPhone maker is in fact about to cancel a decade-long effort to build an electric car, according to rumors reported by Bloomberg.
This would be the end of one of the most ambitious projects in the company's history.
Apple made the revelation internally on Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project, sources said.
3.
Everyone is waiting for this US data.
Investors' attention is entirely on the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index for January, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, scheduled for Thursday 29 February.
PCE is forecast to have risen 0.3% month-on-month, up slightly from the +0.2% seen in December, according to a Reuters poll.
Other data due out this week that could help shape Fed expectations include the second estimate of gross domestic product, jobless claims and manufacturing activity.
Fed policymakers have resisted cutting rates too soon in recent days, with Governor Michelle Bowman saying on Tuesday she was in no rush to lower the cost of borrowing, particularly given the upside risks to inflation that could block progress or even cause a resumption of price pressure.
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