Bank of England’s biggest rate hike since 1995
International Business News – On the 4th local time, in order to curb inflation, the Bank of England announced a 50 basis point interest rate hike, raising the benchmark interest rate from 1.25% to 1.75%, which is the largest rate hike since 1995.
The market is closely watching the Bank of England’s decision to raise interest rates, before the announcement of the interest rate resolution, the pound rose about 0.3% against the dollar, but after the Bank of England formally announced a 50 basis point rate hike and warned that the economy will be in long-term recession, the pound quickly retracted the gains and turned down, once fell below 1 pound to 1.21 U.S. dollars, down more than 0.6% during the day. For the future trend of the pound, UBS analysts expect that in the fourth quarter of this year, the pound to dollar exchange rate will probably fall to 1 pound to 1.15 U.S. dollars, almost the same as the epidemic outbreak in 2020.
Bank of England warns economy will step into recession in fourth quarter
On Thursday, the Bank of England said that the recent rise in gas prices has led to a significant deterioration in the economic outlook for the United Kingdom and many other European countries. The Bank of England expects that energy prices will rise 75% in October this year compared to the same period last year, thus pushing up the British inflation rate to more than 13% in the fourth quarter of this year, and at the same time, the British economy will probably enter recession from the fourth quarter, and the central bank expects the recession to last for five quarters.
4 major three European stock markets closed slightly higher
Although the Bank of England news hit market sentiment, but because of the latest corporate earnings report provided a positive, boosted by it, Europe’s three major stock markets still collectively closed slightly higher on Thursday, including the smallest increase in London, 0.03%, the French stock market in Paris rose 0.64%, the German stock market in Frankfurt rose 0.55%.
4 U.S. stock market three major stock indexes were mixed energy stocks were generally lower
In the United States, the market is waiting for the heavy economic data to be released this Friday local time, that is, the U.S. non-farm payrolls report in July, investor sentiment is more cautious, the three major stock market indexes in the United States closed the day mixed, but the range are not large. Among them, the Dow and the S&P 500 index fell 0.26% and 0.08%, respectively, while the Nasdaq was up 0.41%.
From the plate, dragged by the lower international oil prices, energy stocks generally fell, with Marathon Oil down more than 6% and Occidental Petroleum down more than 5%.
Most large technology stocks rose, and Chinese stocks also generally rose, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closing up 2.3%.
International oil prices fell more than 2% on the 4th
In terms of oil prices, affected by the sharp increase in U.S. crude oil inventories last week from a year earlier, international oil prices continued to move downward on Thursday. By the end of the day, the price of light crude oil futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.34% to close at $88.54 per barrel; the price of Brent crude oil futures for October delivery in London fell 2.75% to close at $94.12 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia Pushes Crude Premiums to Asia to Record Levels
Although international oil prices have fallen in recent days, Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest energy company, released its latest offer sheet yesterday, raising the price of Arabian light crude for September shipments to Asian refineries by 50 cents a barrel from August, making the overall price $9.80 a barrel higher than the Oman-Dubai benchmark crude, the highest premium on record.
Market analysts say Saudi Aramco’s monthly pricing decisions are seen as a bellwether for the oil market, and this price hike means that even though current oil prices have plummeted, supply and demand for crude in the international market will remain tight in September as Asian demand for crude continues to be strong, while Russian crude supply is constrained and oil-producing countries still dominate on prices.