At present, French President Emmanuel Macron is facing the most serious challenge since his re-election. On October 16, local time, a large number of people took to the streets in Paris, the French capital, to protest against high inflation, about 140,000 people participated. At the same time, the left-wing party "unbending France" leader Melenchon called for a national general strike, or will make France's transportation, energy and other important areas of chaos, once spread to more industries, may lead to a series of social shutdowns.
At a critical moment, the risk that US President Joe Biden feared the most was warned again. On Oct. 17, Bloomberg Economists' latest modeling forecast put the probability of a recession in the U.S. economy within the next year at 100%. With the midterm elections just three weeks away, a worsening economic outlook could have a direct impact on American voters' decisions.
Back to the US stock market, since the disclosure of the US inflation data, the US stock market frequently staged a sharp rise and fall. In this regard, long-term bearish US stock strategist Michael J. Wilson of Morgan Stanley pointed out in the latest report that the current US stock market position is very extreme, prone to huge fluctuations, last week the number of put options bought by retail investors in the US stock market is 3 times the number of call options, this proportion is rare in history. As for the US stock market, Michael J. Wilson believes that the US stock market is ripe for a short-term rebound in the absence of an earnings slump or an official recession, but this is only a bear market rebound.
Overnight on Wall Street, the three major indexes extended the rebound, the S&P 500 closed up 1.14%, the Dow rose 1.12%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.9%. Among them, bank stocks rose collectively, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America rose more than 3%, jpmorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs rose more than 2%; Popular Chinese stocks followed the U.S. stock market up, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up 0.3%, Pindoduo up more than 5%, B Station up 1.6%, Baidu up 0.4%, Alibaba down 0.6%, and Tencent ADR slightly down.
France, the euro zone's second-largest economy, is suddenly in the grip of a strike crisis.
According to overseas network quoted Agence France-Presse reported that on October 16, local time, a large number of people took to the streets in Paris, the French capital, to protest against high inflation, demonstrators dissatisfied with the soaring prices and oil prices, and asked for higher wages.
Melenchon has lashed out at the French government for failing to tackle inflation that has plunged the country into chaos, demanding higher wages and opposing the government's imposition of compulsory requisitions for strikers at some refineries or oil depots.
Reported that this time the strike action is nationwide, of which the strike in Paris will start from 12 o 'clock local time on the 18th. Several transport and public sector unions said they would respond to the strike.
The strike on October 18 caused transport chaos in France, including Eurostar, the Paris metro and suburban trains. French Transport Minister Clemente Bonnet warned of disruption to transport operations at SNCF, the national railway company, with half of its trains expected to be cancelled.
On Oct. 18, Reuters reported that a strike at a French refinery disrupted fuel rationing in the country, leaving more than 30 percent of gas stations in France without supplies and having a knock-on effect on sectors of the economy. The French government has imposed compulsory requisition orders on some refinery strikers since October 11 to ensure fuel supplies, but the move has angered unions, some of which have said they will not obey the government order.
More worryingly for the French government, the strike has spread to the most dangerous sector of the energy industry, and nuclear giant EDF will also be affected, delaying routine maintenance work at the company, which is vital to the stable supply of electricity in Europe.
Representatives of FNME-CGT, France's largest energy industry union, said the strike had affected operations at the country's 10 nuclear power plants and further delayed maintenance at 13 reactors, reducing France's generating capacity by 2.2 gigawatts (equivalent to 2.2 gigawatts) in total.
On the nationwide strike, Reuters commented that it will be one of the most serious challenges facing French President Emmanuel Macron since his re-election in May.
A recent poll found that 82 percent of respondents believe Macron is not doing a good enough job of tackling soaring prices. The biggest risk for Macron now is that once discontent spreads to more industries, more people could join the strike, leading to a series of social shutdowns.
On October 17, local time, Macron pointed out at a meeting with French Cabinet ministers that he will continue to do his utmost to solve the crisis and hope that everything will be resolved as soon as possible.
Source: Brokerage China
