Economy and Market Comment
First thing this morning, there was a large “dump” of economic data that the world marketplace expected to be gloom and doom for the world’s second largest economy and world’s largest importer of food and energy. Markets around the world were on edge all day Monday and down-right scared Monday evening.
The economic data was a little worse than expected for the most part, but not so bad.
What shocked the market was the People's Bank of China lowered the interest rate on $55.25 billion worth of one-year medium-term loans to some financial institutions by 15 basis points to 2.50% from 2.65% and unexpectedly cut key policy rates for the second time in three months. Of the China business “gurus” that follow China’s financial situation for a living, 77% predicted there would be no interest rate cuts made today. Not only that, there was cash infusion into the economy to provide more liquidity.
China's largest private real estate developer, Country Garden, sought to delay payment on a private onshore bond for the first time on Monday and its share values were hit hard. Four minutes after this morning’s monetary easing announcement, Country Garden’s stock was up 7%.