US economic worries are growing, but the stock market is holding firm.
The US is likely barreling toward a recession that could be worse than any in the past few decades, with a housing market in a meltdown and consumers on the ropes. Has Wall Street lost its head?
Many analysts say the stock market is fulfilling its role as a forward-looking barometer and that investors are looking past the current economic turmoil to a recovery later this year or next year. Others say such an outlook may be too optimistic.
In the coming week, a key moment for Wall Street will be the policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve, widely expected to make a small rate cut but signal a possible pause to assess the impact of a series of cuts and other stimulus for the US economy.
In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue chips edged up 0.33 percent to 12,891.86 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index added 0.54 percent to 1,397.84.
The technology-heavy NASDAQ composite climbed 0.83 percent to 2,422.93.
Bonds fell in the past week on a shift into equities. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 3.866 percent from 3.743 percent a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.589 percent against 4.517 percent.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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