Weekly Market Update - 26 February 2024
Separate Ways
The four-year synchronization among developed-world central banks might be about to weaken as domestic drivers take over from global trends in determining price outlooks. A pioneer of inflation targeting in the early 1990s, New Zealand has a knack of setting trends in monetary policy. And it may do so again by snapping the policy uniformity, with traders pricing the possibility of an interest-rate hike that economists say could come as soon as Feb. 28. There’s potential for the convergence trend to crack elsewhere too.
Source: Bloomberg
Chinese Tourism
Chinese travel and spending during the Lunar New Year holiday exceeded levels from before the pandemic, adding to signs that consumption is improving. Some 474 million tourist trips were made around the country during the festival, which began Feb. 10 and concluded Saturday — up 19% from the comparable period in 2019, while tourism spending for the holiday climbed nearly 8% from that year. Chinese stocks look poised for a strong open when onshore traders return from the Lunar New Year break, with the data seen bringing much-needed relief to one of the world’s worst-performing major markets.
Source: Bloomberg
The Nvidia Effect
Nvidia continues its blistering rally with shares rising the most in about nine months after the chipmaker delivered another eye-popping sales forecast. All three major American stock indexes stormed to fresh all-time highs Thursday as the chipmaker’s results rekindled faith that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence will boost profits. Meanwhile, for Nvidia itself, a 16% one-day gain in the share price added an unprecedented $277 billion in total market capitalization, topping Meta Platforms’ record one-day jump of $197 billion from just three weeks ago. The rally has put Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang on the cusp of being one of the 20 richest people in the world while also delivering a bonanza to investors who piled into related ETFs. Not everyone is cashing in though. Cathie Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF is missing out in epic fashion and is down nearly 8% so far this year.
Source: Bloomberg