European Central Bank President Lagarde: Since July 2023, the flexibility of the Emergency Anti-epidemic Bond Purchase Program (PEPP) has not been used, and the transmission protection tool (TPI) has not been discussed.European Central Bank President Lagarde: The European Central Bank did not discuss neutral interest rates this week. Many things will become clear in the next few months, not in the next few weeks.European Central Bank President Lagarde: Enterprises are curbing investment, exports are weak, and labor demand continues to weaken. The employment opportunities created are decreasing, so economic development should be strengthened, and the economic rebound is slower than expected.
European Central Bank President Lagarde: The economy will strengthen over time.The yield of German 2-year government bonds fell by 3 basis points to 1.92%, the lowest since December 3.Analysis: Lagarde's speech increased the market's bet to cut interest rates by 50 basis points. In December, the European Central Bank lowered its economic forecast and inflation forecast. At the press conference, European Central Bank President Lagarde paid attention to the downside risks of economic growth, especially mentioning that trade friction may put pressure on economic growth, and also mentioned that they discussed cutting interest rates by 50 basis points. Therefore, the atmosphere of the whole meeting is biased towards doves. The market then increased its bet on a 50 basis point rate cut after January. Although the possibility of a sharp interest rate cut in January is stable at 30%, the possibility of a 50 basis point interest rate cut in March has increased from 30% before the meeting to 40%, and the possibility of a 50 basis point interest rate cut in April has increased from 0% to 5%.
The US dollar just broke through the 7.2700 yuan mark against the offshore RMB, and the latest report was 7.2689 yuan, down 0.12% in the day; The US dollar against the onshore RMB was recently reported at 7.2688 yuan, up 0.10% in the day.Royal Bank of Canada: The European Central Bank may move towards negative real interest rate. Royal Bank of Canada BlueBay Asset Management said that the European Central Bank may cut the interest rate below 2% next year, which the agency estimated to be a short-term neutral interest rate. Kaspar Hense, senior portfolio manager of the institution, said in a report that the core inflation rate is expected to be around 2.5% in the first half of 2025, which means that the real interest rate will be negative. He said that under the influence of unfavorable factors such as trade, continuous competitive pressure from other countries and financial problems, this should play a moderate supporting role in the economy.Apple's iOS 18.2 integrates ChatGPT or helps the future sales of iPhone 17. Citigroup maintains a "buy" rating. Citibank pointed out that the iOS 18.2 update released by Apple basically meets expectations and predicts that there will be more highlights in future updates. In the detailed analysis, Atif Malik, an analyst at Citigroup, said that some basic functions of Siri in the latest system version have been taken over by ChatGPT, but this did not affect his view on the phased introduction of Apple Intelligence functions. He thought that this strategy would not significantly change the difference between the update cycle of iPhone 16/17 and the previous cycle. Malik maintains a "Buy" rating on Apple and a target price of $255. For the future, Malik is optimistic about the update of iPhone 17, and predicts that Apple will achieve 227 million units, 246 million units and 253 million units in 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively.