5 Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Americas

Good morning. China takes steps to boost the economy, tech stocks are surging and a hedge fund makes a billion-dollar bet against German equ [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Good morning. China takes steps to boost the economy, tech stocks are surging and a hedge fund makes a billion-dollar bet against German equities. Here’s what’s moving markets.  —[David Goodman]( China Stimulus China today took steps to [unleash more money]( and help the economy, as People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said the nation will cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks in early February. The 0.5 percentage-point cut to the ratio, or the amount of cash that banks have to keep in reserve, will provide 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion) in long-term liquidity to the market, Pan said. The move helped [fire a rally in global stocks](. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index climbed 0.9% as mining stocks jumped the most in almost six weeks. US Tech Rally US equity futures were also boosted by gains in tech stocks after Wall Street set fresh closing highs on Tuesday. Shares of Netflix rose as much as 11% in premarket trading in New York [after the firm said yesterday](it signed up 13.1 million customers in the final three months of 2023, the streaming giant’s [best quarter of growth]( since viewers were stuck at home in the early days of the pandemic. There’s likely to be more big news for tech later today, with Tesla and IBM both due to report earnings. ASML Soars European tech stocks [are also on a tear](. ASML — the continent’s most valuable technology company — is up about 7% after saying[orders more than tripled last quarter]( from the previous three months as demand for its most-sophisticated machines soared. That’s a sign that the semiconductor industry may be recovering. Meanwhile SAP, Europe’s biggest software maker, is up 6% after it unveiled a restructuring plan that will affect about 8,000 jobs and an increased focus on artificial intelligence, moves that it said would help [boost operating profit to roughly €10 billion next year](. German short Not everyone is on board with the rally in stocks though. The Qube hedge fund is making [a billion dollar bet](against German stocks as a downturn in global demand slows Europe’s biggest economy. The fund has amassed a short bet of more than $1 billion against German companies after added to wagers against the likes of automaker Volkswagen over the last two weeks, and also disclosing a $131.8 million short against Deutsche Bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from regulatory filings. The bets come even as the benchmark DAX stock index remains near its record high. Coming Up… Earnings aside, the major release in the US today is the latest tranche of PMI data, giving an early view of how the economy performed in January. That’s before a slew of data tomorrow covering GDP, durable goods, jobless claims and manufactuting. The Year of Real Estate? The Monday after the Super Bowl is supposedly when the key US homebuying season takes off. Will this year bring an increase in activity? Will the value of your house go up or down? Is 2024 a good time to buy property? Share your views in the latest MLIV Pulse [survey](. What We’ve Been Reading This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - Pound rises on signs the UK economy [is bouncing back.]( - Red sea shipping turmoil [sends economic shockwaves far and wide](. - Hedge fund stars who got China wrong are[paying a big price](. - Russia says [military plane](with 65 Ukrainian POWs crashed. - Alaska Air CEO says [loose bolts]( found in ‘many’ Boeing jets. - Trump racing toward 2024 [Biden rematch]( after New Hampshire win. - A look at how [pizza conquered Britain](. And finally, here's what Joe’s interested in this morning I'm not going to add much commentary to this. But here's an annotated chart of Bitcoin's history. The Red vertical line is when the first CBOE Bitcoin futures started to trade. The Green line is the Coinbase IPO. And the Orange line is when the ETFs started trading. You can take any interpretation you want, but it does seem to be the case that each successive "graduation" of sorts has been followed by a downturn. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on X [@TheStalwart]( Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Tell us what you want to see in the Five Things newsletter! Please [take our quick survey here.]( [Bloomberg Markets Wrap: The latest on what's moving global markets. Tap to read.]( Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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