A shares are about to open, but the peripheral market is confused again!
On February 3, the Bank of England raised interest rates continuously for the first time since 2004 and began the process of quantitative tightening. The MPC voted 5-4 to raise major bank interest rates to 0.5% as the central bank worked to curb soaring inflation. Four members voted to raise the interest rate by 50 basis points to 0.75%. The central bank fired the starting gun for raising interest rates in December last year, raising the main interest rate from an all-time low of 0.1% to 0.25%. Affected by this, the pound, UK Treasury bonds and UK stock market reacted, among which the UK stock index fell across the board.
The US stock futures index, which has a great impact on the global market, also performed poorly. The decline of NASDAQ futures was more than 2%. Among them, meta (formerly Facebook) plummeted by more than 22% before trading, which had a great impact. In addition, because the audible alarm may not be activated when the car starts and the driver does not fasten his seat belt, Tesla is recalling more than 817000 cars in the United States, and the stock fell nearly 3% before trading. The two heavyweights pose a great drag on the NASDAQ.
It is worth mentioning that the European Central Bank did not raise interest rates this time. However, they will also stop purchasing net assets under the PEPP plan at the end of March 2022. This means that although the ECB's contraction action is small, it has also begun.
the Bank of England has raised interest rates continuously for the first time in 18 years
On February 3 Beijing time, the Bank of England raised interest rates continuously for the first time since 2004 and began the process of quantitative tightening.
The market is generally expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points. In order to curb soaring inflation, the UK monetary policy committee voted 5-4 to raise the interest rate of major banks to 0.5%. It is worth mentioning that the four members voted to raise the interest rate by 50 basis points to 0.75%.
The Bank of England fired the starting gun to raise interest rates in December, raising the main interest rate from an all-time low of 0.1% to 0.25%. Since then, inflation in the UK has soared to a 30-year high in December as rising energy costs, recovery in demand and supply chain problems continue to push up consumer prices.
The Bank of England also raised its inflation forecast on Thursday to a peak of 7.25% in April from 6% predicted in its December report. The UK labour market recovery remains strong, with 184000 new employees added in December, making the total employment 409000 higher than before the covid-19 epidemic.
The Bank of England adheres to its past guidance to the market. It is expected that once the bank interest rate reaches 0.5%, there will be quantitative tightening. It will reduce the purchase target of government and corporate bonds by stopping reinvesting maturing assets. The corporate bond sales plan is scheduled to be completed no earlier than the end of 2023, which will completely eliminate the stock of corporate bonds purchased by the central bank.
In its report, the monetary policy committee said that any further tightening of monetary policy would depend on the medium-term outlook for inflation. The monetary policy committee believes that if the economic development is roughly in line with the central forecast in the February report, it may be appropriate to further moderately tighten monetary policy in the coming months. There are two risks to the medium-term inflation outlook: rising wages and energy and global tradable commodity prices.
Analyst Lizzy said that the Bank of England raised interest rates again, which caught the market by surprise. Sterling had previously fallen, but then quickly rose by about 0.4%, while the yield of 10-year Treasury bonds rose by about 10 basis points, and the stock index fell across the board.
It should be noted that the European Central Bank will keep the three key interest rates unchanged, but will stop purchasing net assets under the PEPP plan at the end of March 2022. Inflation may moderately exceed short-term targets., Net purchases are expected to end shortly before interest rate hikes begin. The ECB also intends to continue to fully invest the principal of maturing securities for a period of time after the start of interest rate hike, and reinvest it as necessary in any case.
The European Central Bank said it was ready to appropriately adjust all its instruments to ensure that inflation stabilized at the target of 2% in the medium term. The ECB will also assess the appropriate calibration of the reserve double-layer system so that the negative interest rate policy will not limit the intermediary ability of banks in an environment of sufficient and excess liquidity.
yuan universe collapse 22%
The NASDAQ index fell nearly 2% in the early stage, among which meta was a big drag. The stock plunged more than 22% before trading. At the close of February 2, the stock market was worth US $898.5 billion, equivalent to RMB 5.7 trillion. As of 23:40 on February 3, meta fell by more than 23%. It is worth mentioning that Naifei's performance in January made the NASDAQ suffer. The lethality of these big stocks in bad times is no worse than that of small stocks.
After Wednesday (February 2) local time, Facebook, which has been renamed meta platforms, announced the fourth quarter financial report of fiscal year 2021, which is also the first quarterly financial report since it was renamed in October last year.
Meta platforms earned $33.67 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $33.43 billion, but EPS was $3.67, lower than the expected $3.84. The net profit was US $10.285 billion, which was the first year-on-year decline (- 8%) since the second quarter of 2019. The number of live users in the four seasons was 1.93 billion, lower than the 1.95 billion expected by analysts; The number of monthly live users was 2.91 billion, lower than the 2.95 billion expected by analysts. This also means that the company's daily living data fell month on month for the first time.
The company expects revenue in the current quarter to be between $27 billion and $29 billion, with analysts predicting $30.25 billion.
Meta platforms Inc's user growth stalled in the fourth quarter and the disappointing outlook for the quarter raised concerns about the company's future growth prospects, which may eventually find it difficult to justify its expensive bet on metauniverse. Several investment banks also lowered their target prices.
Tesla also has a big event
Something happened to Tesla, too.
On February 3, Reuters reported that Tesla is recalling more than 817000 cars in the United States because the audible alarm may not be activated when the car starts and the driver does not fasten his seat belt.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Thursday that vehicles with 2021-2022 model s and model x, 2017-2022 model 3 and 2020-2022 model y did not meet federal motor vehicle safety standards for "occupants". Tesla will perform a wireless (OTA) software update to solve this problem.
Tesla told NHTSA that as of January 31, it was not aware of any crashes or injuries related to the problem. Tesla said in a document submitted to NHTSA that the Korean automobile testing and Research Institute (katri) brought this situation to Tesla's attention on January 6.
Tesla said that on the recalled vehicles, software errors may prevent the ring from starting when the vehicle starts in some cases, but the problem is limited to specific cases. In the previous driving cycle test, the bell was interrupted and the seat belt was not fastened after the bell was interrupted. Tesla added that when the vehicle speed exceeds 22 km / h and the driver's seat belt buckle is not detected, the problem will not affect the activation of the seat belt prompt tone.
Tesla has been subject to increasingly stringent scrutiny by U.S. regulators and has issued several recalls in recent months.
On Tuesday, Tesla said it was recalling 53822 American vehicles equipped with the company's fully automated driving (beta) software, which may allow some models to "roll stop" and will not stop completely at intersections that pose a safety risk. NHTSA said Tesla will perform a wireless software update to disable the "scroll stop" function.
Affected by this, Tesla's share price continued to fall before Thursday's trading. However, as of 23:50, Tesla's share price turned red.
