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Late at night, even though the UK had just announced a rate cut, it couldn't stop its stock market from diving.

European stock markets fell across the board.

The U.S. stock market plummeted, with the three major indexes turning from rising to falling and all falling by more than 1%.

Silver also plummeted.

what happened?

As of press time, European stock markets generally fell, with the German DAX index, the French CAC40 index, the Italian FTSE MIB index, the Swedish OMX30 index and other indices all falling by more than 2%.

Despite the announcement of a rate cut, the UK stock market has not been able to stop its plunge. As of press time, the UK FTSE 100 index fell by more than 1%.

U.S. stocks plunged, turning from rising to falling. As of press time, the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones indexes all fell by more than 1%.

The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell more than 2%.

Most of the popular Chinese stocks fell, with NIO falling more than 5%; iQiyi falling more than 4%; Zeekr and Xpeng Motors falling more than 3%; BYD and JD.com falling more than 2%.

International silver also plummeted, falling by more than 2% at one point during the session.

US jobs data weak

On the news front, weak US employment data has raised global concerns about the economic outlook.

Data just released by the United States showed that the number of initial unemployment claims last week was 249,000, exceeding the expected 236,000 and the previous value of 235,000; the four-week average was 238,000, also exceeding the previous value of 235,500.

As of the week ending July 20, the number of people continuing to apply for unemployment benefits in the United States was 1.877 million, exceeding the expected 1.856 million.

In addition, the US ISM manufacturing PMI in July was 46.8, the lowest since November 2023, lower than the expected 48.8 and the previous value of 48.5.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.3% month-on-month in June, the biggest drop since October 2022, compared with expectations for an increase of 0.2%. The previous value was revised from a decrease of 0.1% to a decrease of 0.4%.

In addition, Canada’s just-released manufacturing data was also far below expectations: the final value of the S&P Global Manufacturing PMI in July was 47.8, lower than the expected 49.2, the initial value of 49.3, and the final value of 49.3 in June.

Illinois Governor Pritzker said he would urge the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which would help companies in struggling situations.

Last night, the Federal Reserve’s July interest rate meeting showed that interest rates would remain unchanged.

CITIC Securities pointed out that the Federal Reserve will continue to keep interest rates unchanged at its July 2024 interest rate meeting, which is in line with market expectations. The statement of the interest rate meeting has changed significantly compared with the previous one, indicating that confidence in cooling inflation has increased.

Powell's speech was generally neutral and dovish, with "overall", "normalization" and "balance" being the core words. Compared with his speech in June, which focused on controlling inflation, this speech spent significantly more time on the job market, emphasizing the balance of risks on both the economy and inflation sides.

If US inflation does not fluctuate in July and August, the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in September as a risk-management measure to guide the US economy to a "soft landing."

Europe's economy is in trouble

On the evening of August 1, the Bank of England suddenly announced a 25 basis point interest rate cut to 5%, the first rate cut since March 2020. Since August 2023, the Bank of England has kept the interest rate at a historic high of 5.25%.

After the UK cut interest rates, the European Central Bank could no longer sit still.

The European Central Bank may have to further ease monetary policy to boost the region's struggling economy, and two more interest rate cuts are still possible this year, ECB Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said.

The Greek central bank governor said officials were making progress in the fight against inflation, although the economic growth momentum shown by recent data could reduce price pressures more than expected, adding that risks to the inflation outlook were now balanced.

"If the decline in inflation continues as expected, I still expect two more rate cuts this year," Stournaras said in an interview published on Thursday. "We are on the right track. Growth has been weaker than expected, which also supports rate cuts." Asked whether there would be another rate cut in September, Stournaras said only that the rate decision would depend on the data and take into account "all available information."