(Original title: Overseas financial media focus: Powell’s valued inflation index hits second low this year, Biden said he would adjust the “Reducing Inflation Act”)
Financial Associated Press, December 2, overnight, overseas markets focused on the global economy and the international oil market. In terms of the global economy, the core inflation index that Powell valued hit the second-lowest level this year, and the growth rate of personal spending accelerated; Biden said that he would adjust the “Inflation Reduction Act” to protect European companies from unfair treatment. In the international oil market, the Biden administration seeks to stop the sale of strategic oil reserves, which may affect 147 million barrels of crude oil; the G7 is very close to reaching an agreement on the $60 Russian oil price ceiling. In addition, Mobius, the “Godfather of Emerging Markets”, expects Bitcoin to fall to $10,000 next year.
Bloomberg: The core inflation index that Powell values hits the second-lowest personal spending growth rate during the year
A benchmark measure of U.S. inflation rose to its second-lowest level this year in October, while consumer spending picked up, giving the Federal Reserve hope that inflation will cool without a recession.
Data released by the US Department of Commerce on Thursday showed that the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE), which excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% in October from October, which was lower than expected. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized this week that core PCE is what he believes is a more accurate indicator of where inflation is headed.
Core PCE rose 5% year-over-year, after an upwardly revised 5.2% gain in September.
The overall PCE rose 0.3% month-on-month for the third consecutive month and was up 6% year-on-year, still well above the Fed’s 2% target.
Personal spending adjusted for price changes rose 0.5 percent in October, up from 0.3 percent in the previous month, largely reflecting a sharp rise in spending on goods.
Similar to last month’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), the PCE report showed that while inflation has started to come down, it remains too high. While the deceleration in inflation is welcome, Powell emphasized on Wednesday that the U.S. is far from reaching a level of price stability and that “more substantive evidence” must be seen to judge that inflation has really cooled.
Reuters: Fed officials reiterate need to raise rates further to fight inflation but support slower rate hikes
Barkin, the Fed’s vice chairman for financial supervision, said on Thursday that the pace of interest rate hikes is likely to slow down at the Dec. 13-14 meeting, suggesting he is one of the Fed’s policymakers who support a slower pace of rate hikes.
In addition, New York Fed President Williams also reiterated that he believes that further interest rate hikes are needed to reduce excessive inflation.
Federal Reserve Governor Bowman said that the Fed should slow down the pace of rate hikes to assess the impact of the rate hike cycle, but the inflation rate is still too high, and the Fed’s policy needs to be sufficiently restrictive for a period of time to bring inflation down.
Yahoo Finance: Biden said he would adjust the “Reducing Inflation Act” to protect European companies from unfair treatment
US President Biden held talks with visiting French President Macron and announced the establishment of a joint US-EU working group to deal with trade disputes with Europe triggered by the US’s earlier adoption of the “Reducing Inflation Act”.
Biden said at a press conference after the meeting that he would not apologize for promoting American manufacturing of essential goods, but agreed that large legislation often needs to be adjusted to deal with unintended consequences. The United States will continue to create domestic manufacturing jobs, but not in the same way At the expense of Europe, he will fine-tune so that European companies are not treated unfairly.
Macron said the U.S. and France would resynchronize their clean energy efforts to ensure there was no domino effect that would undermine Europe’s clean energy projects. He emphasized that he hopes that the United States and Europe will succeed together instead of confronting each other, and Europe needs to speed up and strengthen its actions.
Part of the “Reducing Inflation Act” stipulates that the U.S. government will provide high subsidies for locally-made electric vehicle-related industries, etc. EU countries are dissatisfied with this, believing that trade protectionist measures from allies constitute discrimination against European automakers , It will also provide incentives for European companies to transfer their production lines to the United States, indirectly exacerbating the shrinking of European industrial production.
Bloomberg: There are daily industry strikes in the UK before Christmas and there may be cash shortages during the holidays
Workers across the rail network, buses, postal service, health care and schools are planning to strike for better wages at a time when Britain’s inflation is high and the government plans to rein in public spending. The UK will be affected by strikes every day this month until Christmas.
The least impact is expected to be this Sunday, with some bus services expected to be suspended until Sunday morning, but otherwise, the general strike wave will continue until December 24.
GMB labor group national secretary Andy Prendergast suggested on Thursday that union leaders could coordinate industrial action across the NHS for “maximum impact”.
The GMB union, which represents G4S Cash’s transport staff, also wrote to the Bank of England’s chief teller that there could be cash shortages over the Christmas holiday period if strikes start as planned from December 5.
Wall Street Journal: The involution of the streaming media track has intensified. Netflix is said to allow tens of thousands of users to preview content next year
According to media reports citing sources, the streaming media giant Netflix plans to allow tens of thousands of subscribers to preview its video content early next year.
Netflix launched a project called “Netflix Preview Club” (Netflix Preview Club) more than a year ago, and currently has more than 2,000 users. On this basis, Netflix hopes to expand the scale of preview users early next year to tens of thousands of people worldwide, people familiar with the matter said.
It is reported that before the official broadcast of “Don’t Look Up” launched by Netflix in 2021, a small group of American users previewed the movie. They believed that the movie was too serious. After receiving feedback, Netflix added more comedic elements to the film.
While critics received tepid reviews for “Don’t Look Up,” the film was nominated for four Oscars and broke Netflix’s record for weekly viewing hours.
Bloomberg: The Biden administration seeks to stop the sale of strategic oil reserves or affect 147 million barrels of crude oil
The Biden administration is seeking to halt a Congress-mandated sale of parts of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) so it can replenish emergency reserves. The move may affect the sale of 147 million barrels of strategic crude oil reserves.
U.S. Department of Energy officials told a Senate committee on Thursday that the department is seeking to cancel or delay plans to sell SPR authorized by Congress between fiscal years 2024 and 2027, in an effort to push the White House to cover SPR when crude oil prices reach about $70 a barrel scheme.
Congress has authorized the sale of 147 million barrels of oil over the period to fund unrelated legislative initiatives, including 35 million barrels in fiscal 2024, according to data compiled by research firm ClearView Energy Partners.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to release oil while trying to replenish the SPR,” Doug MacIntyre, deputy director of the Energy Department’s Office of Petroleum Reserves, said in testimony to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. .”
Reuters: G7 very close to agreeing on $60 Russian oil price cap
Officials said the Group of Seven (G7) was very close to agreeing on a $60-a-barrel cap on Russian oil export prices; an adjustment mechanism in the agreement would keep Russian crude prices capped at 5% below market prices.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia does not care about the agreement between the EU and the G7 to limit Russian oil prices, because Russia will reach an agreement directly with the buyer. Lavrov reiterated that Russia will not supply oil to countries that support the price cap.
CNBC: “Godfather of Emerging Markets” Mobius Expects Bitcoin to Fall to $10,000 Next Year
On Thursday (December 1), local time, “Godfather of Emerging Markets” Mark Mobius said that Bitcoin may plummet by more than 40% to $10,000 at the current price level.
Previously, the legendary American investor accurately predicted that the cryptocurrency would fall below the $20,000 mark this year. Mobius pointed out that it has now broken the two major technical support levels of $18,000 and $17,000, and it is “not far” from $10,000.
He added that Bitcoin’s plunge will not come immediately and will hover around the current level of $17,000 for a while, but a move to $10,000 may happen in 2023.
Mobius explained why he is bearish on Bitcoin, mainly due to rising U.S. interest rates and the overall tight monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, “As interest rates increase, the attractiveness of holding or buying cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin will change significantly Small, because holding these assets does not earn interest.”