Asian stock markets were slightly positive in thin holiday trading, as China relaxed some rules for banks to boost lending. Europe's major stock exchanges are closed for the Boxing Day holiday.
Here are five things that matter for markets now:
- China is relaxing rules on the use of deposits held by banks as a basis for lending in order to boost credit, the Wall Street Journal reports quoting bankers present at a meeting with the Chinese central bank earlier this week. Analysts cited by the paper estimate the move is roughly equivalent to injecting 1.5 trillion yuan, or about $242 billion, into the banking system.
- Russia warned that Ukraine's bid to join NATO threatened Europe's security. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that the West was using Ukraine's bid to join the alliance as a way to fuel tension between Russia and Ukraine. In a separate development, Russia's finance minister said the ruble crisis was over.
- Rating agency S&P is close to reaching a settlement with regulators over the way it rated real estate bonds, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal involves a suspension of S&P, for several months or possibly a year, from rating some deals, as well as the rating agency paying a fine of around $60 million, the paper said citing sources close to the situation.
- Shoppers in the U.S. are likely to deliver the best holiday sales growth in three years, according to estimates by some in the retail industry. The National Retail Federation expects a 4.1% increase in sales during November and December this year, the strongest rate since 2011, when sales rose 4.8%.
- Saudi Arabia's finance minister rejected suggestions that the oil-rich kingdom create a new sovereign wealth fund to invest the money it gets from its oil exports. The Saudi central bank, Saudi Arabia's Monetary Authority (SAMA) is the one that invests the money the country gets from oil exports, and it normally invests it in low-risk assets such as U.S. Treasuries. Recently, other Saudi officials had said the country might need to invest its reserves in higher-yielding assets to make up for the fall in oil prices.
