Author: Bao Yilong

Source: Wall Street Journal

With China's reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cuts and confirmation of economic and trade talks with the United States, risk appetite has surged. Asian stock markets are up, and futures prices for iron ore, steel, and other commodities have risen. As risk aversion fades, expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut this week have further weakened, the dollar has strengthened, and gold has plummeted during the Asian trading session.

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the State Council Information Office held a press conference where People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng simultaneously announced a reserve requirement ratio and interest rate cut, reducing the deposit reserve ratio for financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points and lowering the policy interest rate by 0.1 percentage points from the current 1.5% to 1.4%, while also reducing the housing provident fund interest rate by 0.25 percentage points. Earlier today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Vice Premier He Lifeng will visit Switzerland from May 9 to 12, and during the visit, Vice Premier He, as the Chinese lead in the China-U.S. economic and trade talks, will hold discussions with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the U.S. lead.

Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange research at the National Australia Bank, stated: "This indicates that both sides may have the willingness and enthusiasm for high-level meetings, so I think this is definitely a positive signal. This is clearly beneficial for the Asian foreign exchange market." The Federal Reserve will hold a meeting later on Wednesday to determine interest rates, and expectations for a rate cut will weaken. Investors believe there is almost no chance of action from the Fed on Wednesday, with the likelihood of a rate cut in June at only 33%, down from 64% a month ago.

Investor sentiment is heating up, with prices of risk assets rising. Bitcoin jumped 3% at the start of the Asian session, while Ethereum surged over 4% at one point. Safe-haven assets showed clear weakness, with gold dropping more than $40, falling below the key level of $3,400. The Swiss franc and Japanese yen depreciated by nearly 0.6%.

Asia-Pacific Stock Markets:

• Optimistic sentiment drove the Asia-Pacific stock markets up, with the MSCI Asia Emerging Markets index rising 0.4%. The South Korean Composite Index rose over 0.5%, the MSCI Vietnam Index rose over 0.4%, and the FTSE Malaysia Index rose nearly 0.3%.

Currency Market:

• Positive tariff news, along with significantly weakened expectations for a Federal Reserve rate cut, saw the dollar index rise nearly 0.3% during the Asian session.

• Bitcoin surged 3% at the start of the Asian session, approaching $98,000, before the increase retreated to 2%.

Commodities:

• As risk aversion fades, gold plummeted $40 during the Asian session, falling below the $3,400 per ounce mark, with intraday losses exceeding 2%. As of the time of writing, the decline has narrowed to 1.2%.

• Previous tariff turmoil damaged macroeconomic sentiment, but with China and the U.S. moving forward with economic and trade talks, commodity futures such as cotton, soybeans, wheat, and iron ore have all shown varying degrees of increase. CBOT soybeans, corn, and wheat rose over 1%.

• International crude oil prices continued their overnight rebound trend, with WTI crude oil rising over 0.63% and Brent crude oil up 0.50%. Natural gas surged 2%.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。