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

Good morning. Chinese stocks soar, bond markets stabilize and BP and UBS deliver contrasting earnings. Here’s what’s moving markets. — David [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Good morning. Chinese stocks soar, bond markets stabilize and BP and UBS deliver contrasting earnings. Here’s what’s moving markets. — [David Goodman]( China boost Global equities got a boost on Tuesday amid growing speculation the Chinese government will be[more forceful](in its push to prop up financial markets. Regulators plan to brief President Xi Jinping on the market as soon as today, a step that suggest [boosting sentiment]( has become a top priority for Beijing. Earlier, Central Huijin Investment, the unit that holds Chinese government stakes in big financial institutions, said it will continue to increase holdings of exchange-traded funds. China’s onshore benchmark CSI 300 Index climbed as much as 2.8% while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of major Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong jumped almost 5%. Losses stemmed The China news lifted the mood in [global markets]( and helped stem some of the losses seen on Monday. US equity futures pointed slightly higher, while 10-year Treasuries held at 4.14% after yields soared about 14 basis points in the previous session. The dollar retreated for the first day in three. Earnings contrast In Europe, the FTSE 100 [ended its longest losing streak since October](thanks largely to strong BP results that saw the oil giant [boost its buyback plan.]( There was less good news for UBS, which retreated after [posting a loss]( that was bigger than analysts forecast. Wall Street shift Today’s Big Take looks at how a momentous shift is under way in global markets as investors pull billions of dollars from China’s sputtering economy and [pump much of that cash towards India](. Srinivasan Sivabalan, Chiranjivi Chakraborty and Subhadip Sircar report that Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are endorsing the country as the prime investment destination for the next decade, triggering a broader rush into the nation’s markets. Coming Up… Markets may be in for more volatility later today as a trio of Fed speakers — Loretta Mester, Neel Kashkari and Susan Collins — deliver remarks. Meanwhile, earnings include Snap and Ford. Investors, including some of those pouring money into the exchange-traded funds, are increasingly betting on low volatility, meaning that they expect to make profits from the US stock market staying calm. Do you think that's a smart strategy? What is the best way to protect from a slump in stocks? Share your views in the MLIV Pulse [survey](. What We’ve Been Reading This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - [Concerns over liquidity](at the top of traders’ minds this year. - Australia’s central bank says it [can’t rule out more hikes](. - Boeing workers [demand a 40% pay rise](, escalating production risk. - Competition worries might worse [Alibaba’s 75% slide.]( - US border-Ukraine aid deal near collapse on the [Daybreak podcast]( - Trump’s favorite metric has [Biden winning the US-China Trade War]( - Private equity owners [pile on debt]( to pay themselves dividends. And finally, here's what Joe’s interested in this morning Near the end of Jay Powell's press conference last week, he was asked about how the Fed uses direct communication with business contacts to get a deeper sense of what's going on with the economy. And in his answer he mentioned that of late the anecdotal evidence has suggested an uptick in momentum for the economy. Now it's interesting that the comment came in the middle of a week where layoffs dominated the headlines. But that can be misleading. The media doesn't cover every company. Consumer-facing tech companies are going to attract more coverage than, say, some specialty chemical maker. Layoffs in the news media get tons of attention for obvious reasons. Anyway, two days after Powell's comments we got a monster non-farm payrolls report. And then yesterday we got the [services ISM](, and it was hot too. Maybe even too hot. The new orders sub-index jumped from 52.8 to 55.0. The employment sub-index jumped from 43.8 to 50.5. And the prices paid index surged to 64.0 from 56.7. Meanwhile, the [Atlanta Fed's GDPNow]( tracker already has Q1 GDP running at 4.2%. Other measures are looking good as well. Freight prices [have been grinding higher](. The Citi Economic Surprise Index is at its highest level since early November. Anyway, we know for a fact that we can have robust labor markets, strong growth, and disinflation all at the same time. We saw it all unfold in 2023. But with these signs of economic momentum, maybe the Fed just needs to see a few more prints consistent with last year's trends, before everyone is totally comfortable that this happy pattern can be sustained. 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. [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. 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