【今日短语】
de facto /deɪ ˈfaktəʊ/
adjective
existing or holding a specified position in fact but not necessarily by legal right.
"a de facto one-party system"
----------------------------
原文如下：
The day in the markets
by George Steer
(来自：The Financial Time 金融时报)
What you need to know
• Wall Street stocks nudge higher ahead of central bank rate decisions
• Policymakers on both sides of Atlantic expected to slow pace of rises
• Asian and European equities retreat but oil prices tick upwards
US stocks rose yesterday ahead of a potentially pivotal week for global financial markets with central banks on both sides of the Atlantic expected to signal a big shift in their fight against inflation by slowing the pace of interest rate rises.
After selling off last week, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.3 per cent.
The moves come ahead of key monetary policy meetings at the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, all of which are forecast to raise interest rates at a slower pace when they meet separately later this week, despite stubbornly high rates of inflation.
Investors are also looking ahead to the release of November’s US consumer price index figures and the Fed’s latest economic projections on unemployment, gross domestic product and inflation with traders hoping for hints on where US interest rates will settle later this year and when they might eventually begin to fall.
Markets are pricing in that the Fed’s main policy rate will crest at about 5 per cent next spring before falling in the second half of the year as inflation moves slowly back towards the central bank’s 2 per cent target.
“We do feel that market consensus still underappreciates the risk of inflation staying higher longer and also is dangerously second-guessing the Fed in terms of [second half of 2023] rate cuts,” said Chris Turner, global head of markets at ING.
The dollar yesterday gained 0.1 per cent against a basket of six international peers, though the world’s de facto reserve currency has tumbled more than 8 per cent since September, largely on hopes that inflation has peaked in the US ...
...
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2.2 per cent while the CSI 300 of Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks lost 1.1 per cent and Seoul’s Kospi lost 0.7 per cent.
Elsewhere, the pan-regional Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.6 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.4 per cent.
Oil prices ticked higher, erasing earlier losses, with Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rising 2.1 per cent to $77.68 a barrel — up slightly from its lowest level this year.
