Chip-led equity rally extends, BoJ stays pat and China tries harder | MarketTalk: What’s up today? | Swissquote

Show notes

The week started on a positive note on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Equities in both Europe and the US gained on Monday. The tech stocks continued to do the heavy lifting with Nvidia hitting another record. Moving forward, the earnings announcements will take the center stage, with Netflix due to announce its Q4 results today after the bell.
The situation is much less exciting for China. Chinese stocks are better bid because Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for more effective measures to stabilize the slumping Chinese stocks, but the truth is, investors left Chinese stocks because of the ferocious government crackdown on most loved Chinese companies. Nothing less than drastic financial support would be enough to bring investors back.
Elsewhere, the Japanese stocks continue to be the bright spot among the Asian equity markets. The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) negative interest rates, the cheap yen and the positive outcomes of the tech war between the US and China have been pushing the Japanese Nikkei index to multi-decade highs, and these factors are not ready to reverse just yet. Today, the BoJ didn’t only announce that it would keep the interest rates unchanged at -0.10% and the upper band for the 10-yer yield steady at 1%, but the bank lowered its inflation forecasts.
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