Fundamentals: Yesterday, the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations were still deadlocked. U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen issued the most severe warning so far. Biden’s trip to Asia was forced to be shortened due to debt negotiations. , Erasing the gains since April, the Nasdaq turned lower. The S&P technology sector bucked the trend and rose. U.S. retail sales turned positive in April, the U.S. dollar index approached a five-week high, and the two-year U.S. bond yield rose more than 10 basis points. Gold lost $2,000.
At present, the White House and Congress are still negotiating the debt ceiling issue. The two sides are still deadlocked, but some progress has been made. Biden has decided to return to the United States on Sunday, May 21, canceling his visits to Papua New Guinea and Australia. Some analysts believe that Biden's move will be a step forward in efforts to avoid the first default in US debt history and prevent major economic losses. key step.
A number of senior Federal Reserve officials have launched a "debate" over whether to suspend interest rate hikes in June. Mester, a well-known hawkish official, believes that the need to continue raising interest rates, while the other four officials emphasized the need to pay close attention to the impact of tightening policies. Top Fed officials were remarkably consistent on tightening monetary policy heading into their May meeting, but disagreements began to emerge over whether current rates were high enough for the central bank to pause rate hikes.
In terms of data, U.S. retail sales rebounded slightly by 0.4% month-on-month in April, lower than market expectations of 0.8%, and a year-on-year increase of only 1.6%, the weakest since May 2020, showing that American consumers are facing enormous pressure.