Today's data selection: The temperature difference between the coldest and hottest places in the country is 78°C; U.S. commercial real estate prices plummet
keep warm! The temperature difference between the two coldest and hottest places in the country is 78℃
The lowest temperature from 15:00 on February 17 to 14:00 on February 18 was -43.3℃ in Qinghe, Xinjiang. The highest temperature recorded from 3:00 on the 18th to 2:00 on the 19th was 34.7°C in Ceheng, Guizhou. Starting from February 20, rain and snow will enter its peak period. From the 21st to the 24th, the snow line will continue to advance southward.
After two consecutive days of slight fluctuations, Bitcoin once again reached $52,000 per coin on February 18, with an intraday increase of nearly 2%. On February 19, the price of Bitcoin continued to run above $52,000 per coin. As of press time, Bitcoin was trading at $52,323 per coin.
In fact, since January 24, the price of Bitcoin has been soaring. According to data from the global currency price website CoinGecko, on January 24, the price of Bitcoin was still below US$40,000 per coin, and then rose rapidly in several trading days. On February 15, it rose to US$52,660 per coin, the highest level since December 2021. new highs. Compared with the stage low of US$26,750 per coin in mid-October 2023, the increase is close to 100%.
In addition to spot Bitcoin, the newly issued Bitcoin ETF in 2024 also continues to be popular, with a strong momentum of "attracting gold". Industry insiders said that the Bitcoin market is recovering strongly due to factors such as the issuance of the first batch of spot ETFs and rising expectations for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. However, the future performance is still difficult to predict. The Bitcoin market is highly volatile, and different countries and regions have very different regulatory policies for digital assets, so you should not blindly enter the market.
The international gold price fluctuates, but the domestic gold finished product consumer market continues to be hot. The person in charge of a gold jewelry store in Shanghai said that wearing a horse-faced skirt and a piece of traditional Chinese gold jewelry has become a new fashionable combination this year. In addition, taking gold bars and old gold jewelry directly to a goldsmith's shop and immersing yourself in the entire process of making gold jewelry has become a new fashion in gold consumption. “Making gold” has become a hot word on social platforms recently.
39% of Japanese plan to work until they are 70 years old
A latest survey by Nihon Keizai Shimbun shows that 39% of Japanese plan to work until they are over 70 years old, the highest level since the survey began in 2018. Among them, 21% answered "70 to 74 years old" and "75 years old" The proportion of "above" is 18%.
The survey also asked about the issue they are most worried about in the future, and 70% of them answered "economic aspects such as living expenses", replacing "health" as the issue that Japanese people are most worried about in the future.
As the aging of the population intensifies, the Japanese government encourages companies to employ the elderly, and will implement the revised "Employment Stability Law for the Elderly" in 2021, which stipulates that companies have the obligation to continue to provide employment for seniors under the age of 70.
Japanese companies are also promoting the abolition of the retirement age and raising the retirement age of employees. Both Nojima Electric and YKK Group have canceled the upper age limit for employment in 2021; Sumitomo Chemical announced that it will raise the retirement age to 65 in stages from April this year.
Data previously released by the Japanese government show that the total number of people over 65 years old in Japan has exceeded 36 million, accounting for nearly 30% of the total population, a record high. One in two people aged 65-69 is still working, while more than 30% of people aged 70-75 are still working.
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote working, office space vacancies continue to rise across the United States. Coupled with the rise in loan interest rates caused by the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, the U.S. commercial real estate market is under even more pressure.
As an important part of commercial real estate, the current situation of office buildings reflects the trend of the entire commercial real estate market. A study by U.S. real estate company Cushman & Wakefield found that as of the end of last year, about one-fifth of office buildings in the United States were vacant, and even in big cities like Los Angeles and Houston, the vacancy rate reached 25%.
The International Monetary Fund said in a blog post that U.S. commercial real estate prices are experiencing their worst plunge in half a century, falling 11% since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in March 2022.
Amid the weak commercial real estate environment, the U.S. banking system is also facing tremendous pressure. Data show that by the end of next year, the total amount of U.S. commercial real estate loans due will exceed $1 trillion, and by 2027, this figure will reach $2.2 trillion. This means that the plight of U.S. commercial real estate may become the biggest potential crisis in the next two years.
A Bloomberg investigation found that 22 regional banks with $10 billion to $100 billion in assets hold more than three times their capital in commercial real estate loans. Bruce Richards, chairman of Marathon Asset Management, warned this week that default rates on commercial real estate loans from smaller banks appear to be heading toward 8% to 10%. Bloomberg quoted a research report as saying that if the default rate of commercial real estate loans of major U.S. banks reaches 10%, it will cause banks to suffer additional losses of approximately US$80 billion.
