Category: Flash News

On April 16th, driven by the continuous release of policy dividends and the “high cut low” rotation effect of funds, the consumer sectors of A-shares and Hong Kong stocks have risen across the board recently. Northbound funds have been lurking in advance, and funds continue to increase their holdings in related ETFs. From the first quarter data, it can be seen that the endogenous driving force of consumption in China continues to recover. The offline consumption heat index in the first quarter increased by 14.2% year-on-year, an increase of 9.1 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Institutional insiders believe that with the further strengthening of stable growth policies and the recovery of effective demand, the consumer sector is facing a dual allocation opportunity of “risk avoidance defense+trend reversal”.

On April 16th, it was reported that on April 15th local time, internal planning documents showed that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed to cancel US funding for UN peacekeeping missions. This move is a response from the White House Budget Office to the US State Department’s budget cuts plan. The new budget must be approved by Congress. In Trump’s first term, he proposed to cut about one-third of the diplomatic and aid budget, but was rejected by Congress. (CCTV News)

On April 16th, Michael Faulkender, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, stated that officials are discussing a possible rule change targeting banks. With the decline in US Treasury bonds last week, attention to the regulatory requirement of “Supplementary Leverage Ratio” (SLR) has skyrocketed. The largest decline in US Treasury bonds in over 20 years has raised concerns about a market crash similar to the one in March 2020. Any rule changes still require approval from the Federal Reserve and other regulatory agencies, although the chairman of the regulatory committee responsible for US financial stability is the Secretary of the Treasury. Faulkender said at an event, ‘We are investigating this matter and have already started discussing it.’.

On April 16th, a spokesperson for the armed faction of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the Kassan Brigade, said on the 15th local time that they had lost contact with the group guarding the detained individual Aidan Alexander, who holds dual citizenship of the United States and Israel, after an Israeli bombing. The statement said that the Kasan Brigade is working hard to contact the guards.

On April 16th, it was reported that Republicans in the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives are drafting an analysis on how to best set new tax brackets for the wealthiest groups in the United States, indicating that the Republican Party under President Donald Trump is seriously considering the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy. According to insiders, the proposal in the House of Representatives intends to set the tax rate for taxpayers with annual income of $1 million or more at 40%. Sources pointed out that the Senate and economic policy advisers of the Trump administration are also studying this idea. A White House official who declined to be named said that Trump is open to establishing a new highest tax bracket. But the official emphasized that the threshold for higher tax rates should be much higher than $1 million. We are studying and discussing various potential offsetting measures with Congress, “Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender said at an event in Washington on Tuesday, noting that although no decision has been made yet, there are” many, many ideas “under consideration to minimize the total cost of the tax bill.

On April 16, with Trump cutting funds and the economic outlook becoming increasingly bleak, more and more Americans began to pay attention to British employment opportunities. According to job search website Indeed, in the three months ending in March, nearly one tenth of overseas clicks on UK job advertisements came from the United States, marking a new high since the second quarter of 2023. Americans’ interest in British jobs rose 2.4 percentage points year on year, the largest increase in any country. This upward trend is mainly driven by Americans looking for research and management positions. This data reflects that billions of dollars in federal funding for research, education, and infrastructure projects were cut in the months following Trump’s return to the White House.

On April 16th, French Foreign Minister Barro announced on social media that France has decided to expel 12 Algerian embassy staff and recall the French ambassador to Algeria in response to Algeria’s expulsion of 12 French embassy staff. On the 14th, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs issued a statement announcing that 12 French embassy staff members were deemed unwelcome and ordered to leave the country within 48 hours. The statement emphasized that this move is a response to France’s recent detention of an Algerian consular staff member.

On April 16, the day before President Trump announced a 90 day suspension of high tariffs on most countries and thus stimulated the stock market to soar, Federal Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sold US treasury bond bonds and bought Amazon, Blackstone and Tesla shares. Greene’s other stocks include chip manufacturers Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm, as well as clothing companies Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Nike. This Republican from Georgia has a close relationship with Trump. Her financial report last week disclosed these transactions. It is currently uncertain how much of Greene’s transaction occurred before Trump announced the suspension of tariffs. But at least the buying of $11011 to $165000 occurred on April 8th.

On April 16th, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on Tuesday that US oil production will peak at 14 million barrels per day in 2027 and maintain this level until 2030 before rapidly declining. The statistics department of the US Department of Energy stated in its Annual Energy Outlook that by 2050, the world’s largest oil producing country’s oil production will decrease from approximately 13.7 million barrels per day this year to approximately 11.3 million barrels per day. At the same time, the forecast shows that the recovery of US oil demand after the COVID-19 epidemic will end next year. In 2019, before the COVID-19, the average oil consumption of the United States was 20.54 million barrels per day. The highest historical record was 20.8 million barrels per day in 2005.

On April 15th, the international academic journal “Nature Machine Intelligence” published a paper online at around 23:00 on April 14th reporting a wearable system that can provide navigation assistance for blind and partially visually impaired individuals. The system is based on AI algorithms as its intelligent core, which capture visual information such as images through cameras. Then, based on AI algorithms, it recognizes, judges, and outputs images to select an accessible route for the user. Finally, in the navigation prompt, it comprehensively provides auditory and tactile signals of the left and right hand skin. For example, bone conduction headphones transmit brief sound signals, and stretchable artificial skin that can be worn on the wrist can transmit vibration signals to the user to guide the direction of movement, avoid objects on both sides, and assist visually impaired people in passing through mazes, avoiding obstacles, and grasping certain objects.