Today's data highlights: Beijing parks received 4.3 million visitors during the Mid-Autumn Festival; Wall Street predicts that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates sharply

1. There is a strong demand for 2-hour high-speed rail travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival

This Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is characterized by local tours and long-distance tours. Data shows that nearly 50% of users choose to take short trips in local areas, remote suburbs or surrounding cities. Among them, Guangzhou, Beijing, Zhuhai, Zhangjiakou, Chengdu, Taiyuan, Xinzhou, Huangshan, Chengde, Xi'an and other places are popular destinations. Passenger flow is more frequent in the 2-hour high-speed rail circle of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the 2-hour high-speed rail circle of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the 2-hour high-speed rail circle of Chengdu and Chongqing, the 2-hour high-speed rail circle of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and the 2-hour high-speed rail circle of Wuhan-Changsha.

2. Travel service trade grew by 48.5% in the first seven months

The latest data shows that in the first seven months of this year, my country's service trade grew rapidly, with travel services growing rapidly, with a year-on-year growth rate of 48.5%, making it the largest area of ​​service trade.

At the 2024 CIFTIS, the guest of honor, France, moved a miniature version of the Arc de Triomphe, a famous landmark in Paris, to the CIFTIS to welcome guests. French companies set up booths in the miniature arch of the Bir Hakeim Bridge, attracting visitors to stop and take photos. Staff at the French Embassy in China said that sports service trade will be a new area of ​​cooperation between the two countries in the future.

3. Wall Street predicts that the probability of a sharp interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve exceeds 60%

The Financial Times reported on the 16th that Wall Street investors predicted that the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 50 basis points this week was about 64%.

The report said that since late last week, futures market investors have raised their expectations that the Federal Reserve will announce a 50 basis point rate cut at its interest rate meeting this week, rather than the previously expected 25 basis point cut.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to hold a monetary policy meeting from the 17th to the 18th. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in late August that the time has come to cut interest rates, almost "explicitly" indicating that the Federal Reserve will announce a rate cut at its September monetary policy meeting.

Data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on the 11th showed that the U.S. consumer price index rose 2.5% year-on-year in August, 0.4 percentage points narrower than in July. This is the smallest increase since February 2021, showing signs of continued slowdown in inflation. At the same time, the U.S. labor market continued to weaken. Also according to the Department of Labor data, the number of layoffs in the United States increased to 1.76 million in July, the highest level since March 2023.

1. Apple's stock price fell nearly 3%! iPhone 16 series, pre-order sales fell 12.7% in the first weekend

On the evening of September 16th, Beijing time, when the U.S. stock market opened, Apple fell nearly 3%. By the close of trading, Apple's stock price fell 2.78% to $216.32 per share, with a total market value of $3.29 trillion.

On the news front, according to Securities Times e-company, Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the pre-order sales of the iPhone 16 series in the first weekend are estimated to be about 37 million units, a year-on-year decrease of about 12.7% compared with the first weekend sales of the iPhone 15 series last year. The key is that the iPhone 16 Pro series is lower than expected.

Guo Mingchi pointed out that the shipping time of the iPhone 16 Pro series is significantly lower than that of the 15 Pro series. In addition to the increase in inventory before pre-orders, the key reason is that demand is lower than expected, judging from the year-on-year decrease in sales in the first weekend.

2. Intel plans to produce AI chips for Amazon, and its stock price soars

Intel Corp. shares rose nearly 7% in premarket trading on Sept. 17 after it said its foundry business would produce some customized artificial intelligence chips for Amazon Web Services in an effort to revive its business.

Intel will build an AI fabric chip for Amazon’s cloud services unit in its foundry business, Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger said in a message to employees late Monday, and he said the troubled unit would become an Intel subsidiary.

Gelsinger also presented Intel's latest cost-cutting measures. The executive said the chipmaker is more than halfway toward its goal of cutting about 15,000 jobs by the end of the year through voluntary early retirements and resignations. He added that "difficult decisions" still need to be made and affected employees will be notified in mid-October. Intel also plans to reduce or exit about two-thirds of its global real estate by the end of the year.

3. Midea's listing in Hong Kong is the largest IPO in Hong Kong in three years

Midea Group Co., Ltd. officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the 17th. It opened high that day and closed with a 7.8% increase in its share price.

According to the prospectus, Midea Group's offering price is between HK$52.00 and HK$54.80 per share. The number of shares offered globally is 565,955,300 shares, and the number of shares offered in Hong Kong is 28,297,800 shares.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) Group Chief Executive Officer Paul Chan said that Midea Group's IPO raised more than HK$30 billion. If the over-subscription option is exercised, the amount raised will reach US$4.6 billion. This is the largest IPO since Kuaishou's IPO in February 2021, and the second largest IPO in the world this year.

Chen Yiting said that large-scale new stock listings will come one after another in the near future. The scale of refinancing in Hong Kong has reached US$20 billion so far this year. There are currently about 100 listing applications waiting to be processed, including applications that plan to raise US$1 billion. There are many positive signals in the Hong Kong fundraising market. In April this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission launched five measures to support the Hong Kong capital market, including supporting leading mainland companies to list in Hong Kong.

1. Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong launched a 100 million yuan car purchase subsidy

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the automobile consumer market in Shenzhen, Guangdong, welcomed new subsidy measures. Among them, Nanshan District has set aside a total of 100 million yuan to encourage consumers to buy cars. In addition to Nanshan District, Bao'an District has also recently launched a lottery subsidy for car purchases, with each winning new car user receiving subsidies ranging from 2,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan. In addition, Shenzhen is carrying out old-for-new and car scrapping subsidies throughout the city, with a maximum subsidy of 15,000 yuan for each fuel vehicle and 20,000 yuan for each new energy vehicle.

2. Beijing parks received 4.3031 million visitors during the Mid-Autumn Festival

During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Beijing parks received 4.3031 million visitors, with the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven and the Olympic Forest Park ranking the top three.

The reporter learned from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry that during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday from September 15 to 17, the city's parks received a total of 4.3031 million visitors, an increase of 29.23% compared with the same period last year. The top three parks in terms of visitor volume during the three-day holiday were: Summer Palace with 284,800 visitors, Temple of Heaven with 268,700 visitors, and Olympic Forest Park with 210,100 visitors.

The reporter learned from the Beijing Municipal Park Management Center that during the three days of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2024, 11 municipal parks and the China Garden Museum received a total of 1.344 million tourists, an increase of 38.9% year-on-year in 2023. Among them, the Summer Palace received 284,800 visitors, the Temple of Heaven Park received 268,700 visitors, and Beihai Park received 166,000 visitors, ranking the top three.

3. Residential properties with a total price of tens of millions are hot-selling, and many cities are promoting low-density residential land

Recently, Shanghai Qingpu held a land promotion meeting, promoting 39 plots of land and 17 groups. Among them, three plots of land have attracted special attention.

Promotional materials show that the planned floor area ratio of plot D02-12 on the south side of Dianshan Lake Avenue in Zhujiajiao Town, and plots 105-06 and 105-20 on the east side of Zhuxi Road in Zhujiajiao Town is only 0.8.

At the end of September last year, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a document suggesting that the restriction on the floor area ratio of suburban areas not to be less than 1.0 be cancelled. The signal released by Qingpu District this time means that the Ministry of Natural Resources' suggestion to "cancel the restriction on the floor area ratio of 1.0 in suburban areas" will be implemented in a first-tier city for the first time.

Since the beginning of this year, the overall land market has remained flat, but the "low-density residential land" launched in some core cities has set off a small climax in land auctions and has been hotly sought after by developers. The premium rate of a low-density residential land in Hangzhou is close to 60%. In the Wuxi residential land market, low-density residential land has become a mainstream supply type. In some second- and third-tier cities, after low-density real estate products were put on the market, there were hot-selling scenes such as "sold out in 10 minutes" and "more than 2,000 people signed up for the lottery".