Global Finance Shifts: US PC Market Rises, Fed Cuts, and More

In the United States market, a report from the market research firm Canalys indicates that in the second quarter of 2024, the shipment volume of PCs (excluding tablets) in the U.S. grew by 4% year-on-year, reaching 18.9 million units. Among them, the demand for notebooks was extremely strong, with a year-on-year growth rate in shipments exceeding 5%. It is predicted that the total shipment volume of PCs in the U.S. in 2024 will increase by 6%, approaching 70 million units, and is expected to grow by another 6% in 2025, reaching 74 million units.

Federal Reserve officials have successively released signals of interest rate cuts. Several Federal Reserve officials have claimed that with inflation steadily declining, the interest rate cut this year can reach at least 50 basis points. Neel Kashkari, a 2026 FOMC voter and President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, believes that after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points last week, the policy remains tight, and he expects further interest rate cuts of 50 basis points within the year. Raphael Bostic, a 2024 FOMC voter and President of the Atlanta Federal Reserve, fully supports a 50 basis point rate cut in September, stating that the U.S. economy is cooling down and interest rates need to be restored to normal levels. Charles Evans, a 2025 FOMC voter and President of the Chicago Federal Reserve, also pointed out that more interest rate cuts may be needed in the coming year, and interest rate levels need to be significantly reduced. Affected by this, the market's expectations for future interest rate cuts have further strengthened.

In terms of the stock market, overnight, driven by the interest rate cut signals from Federal Reserve officials, the three major U.S. stock indices all closed slightly higher, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices both reaching new highs. However, Wall Street has significant disagreements on the subsequent trend of the U.S. stock market.In terms of other corporate developments, Cyanotech (CYAN.us), listed on the US OTC market, saw its stock price quickly rise by 10.57% at 01:00 AM Beijing time on September 24th, trading at $0.774 per share; Clean Energy Fuels Corp.'s stock price significantly increased by 5.12% at 03:19 AM Beijing time on September 24th, trading at $3.19 per share.

In other regional markets, Temasek Holdings of Singapore announced on September 24th that it will provide $77 million in climate financing and deploy $100 million in concessional financing to help address the funding gap for climate action in Asia, focusing mainly on renewable energy, energy storage, modernization of power infrastructure, and biofuels.

The situation in the European market is as follows: In terms of economic data, business activity in the Eurozone shows signs of weakness, and expectations for an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank are rising. The Eurozone's September manufacturing PMI hit a new low for the year, with both input and output price inflation slowing down. In the foreign exchange market, due to the rising expectations of an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank, the euro fell 0.47% against the US dollar, closing at 1.1110. Traders have increased their bets on an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank, with a 40% probability of a 25 basis point cut in October, putting pressure on the euro.

The situation in the Middle East is also impacting the financial sector. Israel has launched a large-scale airstrike on multiple locations in Lebanon, resulting in 492 deaths, and Israel has declared a national emergency, with the United States set to send additional troops to the Middle East.

Furthermore, on September 24th, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued a notice, deciding to initiate an investigation into the US PVH Group for suspected violations of normal market trading principles, interrupting normal transactions with Chinese enterprises, other organizations, or individuals, and adopting discriminatory measures, among other issues, by launching an Unreliable Entity List investigation.