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Ceng Gang, Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory: Judging from the economic situation and policy space, it is still possible to lower the RRR and cut interest rates in the future. The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to implement a moderately loose monetary policy. In this regard, Ceng Gang, chief expert and director of Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, said that the tone of "moderately loose" monetary policy is in the same strain as that of Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party. China's monetary policy has been adjusted from "steady" to "moderately loose", aiming at boosting economic growth and alleviating downward pressure through a more active monetary policy, while providing support for key areas and structural adjustment. In response to the expression of "timely RRR cuts and interest rate cuts", Ceng Gang believes that from the current economic situation and policy space, it is still possible to implement RRR cuts in the future, especially in targeted cuts to required reserve ratios, to release long-term liquidity; The possibility of interest rate cuts is also greater, and it is expected that a one-time large-scale interest rate cut will be implemented at the end of this year or early next year. (SSE)Baidu and Geely have started the internal transfer process to pay social security for employees of Jiyue in November. On the evening of December 12, the employee representative of Jiyue, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue, and two major shareholders of Geely and Baidu held a closed meeting. Interface news learned that after several rounds of communication, Baidu and Geely are taking the transfer process to pay the arrears of social security for employees in November. (Interface)Trump was elected as Time Magazine's Person of the Year for the second time, and Time Magazine awarded Donald Trump, who is about to re-enter the White House, with the recognition of his amazing political comeback and his historic year of assassination attempt and felony conviction. This result also confirms the general expectation. Since Bush in 2000, the magazine has awarded this honor to the winner in every presidential election. Trump was also named the magazine's person of the year when he first won the US election in 2016.

WTI crude oil futures fell below $70/barrel, down 0.43% in the day; Brent crude oil fell 0.43% in the day to $73.05/barrel.Analysis: Lagarde's speech increased the market's bet to cut interest rates by 50 basis points. In December, the European Central Bank lowered its economic forecast and inflation forecast. At the press conference, European Central Bank President Lagarde paid attention to the downside risks of economic growth, especially mentioning that trade friction may put pressure on economic growth, and also mentioned that they discussed cutting interest rates by 50 basis points. Therefore, the atmosphere of the whole meeting is biased towards doves. The market then increased its bet on a 50 basis point rate cut after January. Although the possibility of a sharp interest rate cut in January is stable at 30%, the possibility of a 50 basis point interest rate cut in March has increased from 30% before the meeting to 40%, and the possibility of a 50 basis point interest rate cut in April has increased from 0% to 5%.Apple's iOS 18.2 integrates ChatGPT or helps the future sales of iPhone 17. Citigroup maintains a "buy" rating. Citibank pointed out that the iOS 18.2 update released by Apple basically meets expectations and predicts that there will be more highlights in future updates. In the detailed analysis, Atif Malik, an analyst at Citigroup, said that some basic functions of Siri in the latest system version have been taken over by ChatGPT, but this did not affect his view on the phased introduction of Apple Intelligence functions. He thought that this strategy would not significantly change the difference between the update cycle of iPhone 16/17 and the previous cycle. Malik maintains a "Buy" rating on Apple and a target price of $255. For the future, Malik is optimistic about the update of iPhone 17, and predicts that Apple will achieve 227 million units, 246 million units and 253 million units in 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively.

The European Central Bank predicts that inflation will decline in 2025, and the European Central Bank currently predicts that inflation will cool down slightly faster than predicted in September. The bank's latest forecast shows that the average inflation rate in 2024 and 2025 is 2.4% and 2.1% respectively, while the previous forecast is 2.5% and 2.2% respectively. After cutting interest rates by 25 basis points, the European Central Bank said in a statement: "The anti-inflation process is on the right track." The bank said: "Domestic inflation has declined slightly, but it is still at a high level, mainly because wages and prices in some industries are still adapting to the past inflation surge, but there is a great delay." The European Central Bank maintains its inflation forecast of 1.9% in 2026, and predicts that the average inflation rate in 2027 will be 2.1%.Macron said that it opposed the free trade agreement reached between the EU and MERCOSUR. On December 12th, local time, French President Macron, who was visiting Poland, said that he disagreed with the free trade agreement reached between the EU and MERCOSUR. Macron said that the impact of the agreement on the agricultural market caused widespread concern, and France would not sacrifice its agricultural sovereignty. On the same day, Macron also said that Europe must strengthen its investment in security, build a European defense base and reduce its strategic dependence on the outside world. The EU and MERCOSUR reached a trade agreement on December 6th. The Southern Common Market was established in 1991. At present, its members are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, of which the first four are founding members. The vast majority of goods among member countries are free to trade without tariffs, and a unified foreign tariff policy is implemented. It is understood that the trade agreement needs to be approved by at least 15 of the 27 EU member States, and it needs to be voted by the European Parliament before it can be approved. France, Poland and Italy opposed the agreement. (CCTV News)