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The House of Representatives is determined to change the day, the new speaker may visit Taiwan, and the outside world is worried and tense up
The Republican Party in the United States did not perform as expected in the midterm elections, failing to set off a red wave of victory, but it is still expected to take over the dominance of the House of Representatives. Republican control of the House of Representatives could propose tougher China policies, creating new risks for businesses.
Barron's, VOA reports, while both Republicans and Democrats embrace hardline China policies, analysts stress that Republicans have consistently proposed more aggressive measures against China than Democrats.

Anna Tucker Ashton, director of Eurasia Group, a political risk manager, said Republicans are highly concerned about issues including policies to support Taiwan, stronger efforts to ensure that U.S. technology does not fall into Chinese hands, and cutting off U.S. capital flows to mainland companies linked to the Chinese government.

Ashton believes that if the Republican Party controls the House of Representatives, it will continue to promote China policy and pressure the White House to take a stronger stance against Beijing.

Robert Ross, a professor of political science at Boston College, pointed out that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in the U.S.-China relationship, and one of the big questions is how many symbols of sovereignty the Taiwan Policy Act give Taiwan, and to what extent does the White House need to regard Taiwan as a sovereign independent country? Republicans will press the White House to do so, and the Republicans are so high-profile that it is difficult for the White House to resist the pressure.

Investors are also worried about renewed tensions in Taiwan, triggered by Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives and leading a larger congressional delegation to Taiwan. Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia department of The Stimson Center, a U.S. think tank, warned that when current House Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, China responded with a live-fire exercise, and if another speaker visits Taiwan, China's reaction may be more intense. This will put more pressure on U.S.-China relations, forcing U.S. companies to think more seriously about the worst-case scenario of Taiwan.

Predictions of midterm election results show that Republicans will have a slight majority in the House of Representatives, with 222 seats, surpassing Democrats by 213. In the Senate, the Democratic Party may be able to maintain a slim dominance. Of the 35 seats re-elected to the Senate, 3 have so far been difficult to decide.

Britain as a guide? FXH: The Fed's next step is QE, but it won't admit it
Arbert Edwards, a global strategist at Société Veritas France, has long been known for its anti-market forecasts, warned that the wave of sell-offs in financial markets will not end unless the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening policy is bent.
Business Insider, CNBC reported, Edwards published a research report on the 29th, pointing out that the UK 30-year bond yield soared below 5% this week, the first time since 2010, and the 5-year bond yield also exceeded 4.5%, the first time since 2008. He said that although people believe that the new British government's tax cut plan is the culprit of the collapse of British bond prices, in fact, when the Bank of England (BoE) announced on Thursday (September 22) that it would reduce the British bond acquisition by 80 billion pounds and raise interest rates by two yards in the next December, selling pressure began to come out.

Edwards said that while the news media mostly focused on the weak movement of the pound, the collapse of the British government was only severe. Markets have proven (as in 2018) that quantitative tightening monetary policy (QT) is not at all "as tedious as watching the paint dry out". QT forced BoE monetary policy to bend hairpins as shamefully Fed Chairman Jerome Powell did.

What's next? Edwards believes that the central bank will take "not quantitative easing monetary policy (Not-QE)" action.

Powell announced in 2019 that the Fed would resume buying Treasuries to avoid market turmoil, but he stressed at the time that "in no sense is this QE."

BoE announced on 28 September that it will acquire long-term Treasury bonds at a rate of up to £5 billion per day over the next 13 business days. BoE stressed that the purpose of the bond purchase is not to drive down the borrowing cost of long-term bonds, but to buy time to stop the vicious circle of pension funds being forced to sell British government bonds and meet the cash needs of creditors.

The size of the Fed's balance sheet has swelled to $9 trillion from less than $1 trillion before the 2008 global financial tsunami. Edwards pointed out that the central bank has pushed the bubble and financial leverage to absurd highs through monetary stimulus policies for decades, and the market will never tolerate QT for too long.

The Fed has doubled its monthly QT amount to $95 billion this month, which is to allow $60 billion in government bonds and $35 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for real estate loans to be denominated after maturity. Edwards has only one word for whether Fed can successfully execute QT: "Good luck!"

Lu frantically buys Russian coal to cope with high temperatures BCI has soared 560% from the end of August
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which measures the freight rate of bulk shipping on raw materials, jumped 11% on the 20th, driven by China's large-scale imports of coal, and has soared nearly 80% from the previous wave at the end of August.
MoneyDJ XQ Global Winners System quotes show that BDI rose 11.33% to close at 1,729 points, the highest closing since August 3; It is up 79.17% from the previous wave low (965 points) on August 31.

The Baltic Cape Index (BCI), which measures freight rates for raw materials such as iron ore and coal, soared 31.27% to close at 1,994 points on the 20th, hitting a new high since August 1; It is up 560% from the previous low on August 31 (302 points).

Reuters reported on the 20th that China's coal imports to Russia in August hit a new high of at least five years, mainly because power plants seek overseas supply to meet domestic demand for electricity due to extreme heat. China is the world's largest consumer of coal.

China's General Administration of Customs announced on the 20th that coal imports from Russia in August reached 8.54 million tons, higher than the previous wave in July of 7.42 million tons, and also surged 57% over the same period last year. Imports in August hit a new high since 2017.

Driven by increased purchases from China and India, Russian thermal coal's offer rose to $155 a ton at the end of August, up from $150 a ton a month ago. Since late July, China's southwest has been hit by extreme drought and heat waves, and coal-fired power plants are struggling to scale up production to meet soaring demand for air conditioning and to fill the supply gap for hydroelectric power plants.

The plant is expected to increase coal imports in October, replenishing stocks ahead of the start of heating season in northern China in mid-November.

Meta-metacosmic ambitions hit a wall? VR platform Horizon will be gone
Social media giant Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (META. US) spent tens of billions of dollars to develop the metaverse. However, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, recently sent out a meta-universe virtual doppelganger selfie, the texture of the picture is outdated, and it is ridiculed by netizens. What's worse, the news came out that meta's VR platform Horizon department personnel earthquake, 1 big general left, the timing is sensitive, causing external attention.
CNBC, Reuters reported that Meta spokesperson confirmed on August 26 that Horizon deputy general manager (Vice President) Vivek Sharma is about to leave, and the Horizon team will report directly to Vishal Shah, vice president of Meta Meta-Universe Department in the future.

Sharma has been with Meta for 5 years and 11 months, rising to vice president of Horizon in August 2021, where she manages Meta's VR projects, including Horizon Worlds, a meta-universe social platform, HORIZON Workrooms, a VR-based remote collaboration app, and Horizon Venues, which hosts live events in a VR environment.

Zuckerberg recently revealed that Meta plans to launch a new VR headset in October this year.

In 2020, Meta launched the second-generation VR headset Meta Quest 2, which is currently priced at $399.99 for the 128GB version and $499.99 for the 256GB version.

Metacosm refers to virtual spaces parallel to the real world, such as the virtual game world OASIS described in the movie Ready Player One. In October 2021, Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta Platforms, demonstrating its determination to shift its operational focus to metacosms.

According to the MoneyDJ XQ Global Winner System quotes, As of August 26, 2022, Meta's share price has fallen by 51.90%.

The tide of funds has receded to disperse the housing market Rongjing The demand for US housing loans hit a new 22-year low
Inflation in the United States continues to soar, and major bearish interest rate hikes and other major bears have washed away the housing market and the demand for mortgages has also blown cold winds. The latest data show that last week, the US housing loan demand refreshed the 22-year low, reflecting that the housing market is no longer "hot", and the housing market scenery built by the capital frenzy during the epidemic has obviously subsided.
CNBC reported that the Market Composite Index, which measures mortgage applications, fell 6.3 percent from the previous week and hit a 22-year low since 2000, after a seasonally adjusted july 20, CNBC reported.

Judging from the two major projects of Refinance and Purchases, the number of applications decreased from the previous week. According to MBA statistics, the Refinance Index is 4% lower than the previous week and 80% lower than the same period last year, also at a 22-year low; The Purchase Index also fell 7 percent from the previous week and 19 percent from the same period last year as current mortgage rates nearly doubled from January.

According to the MBA, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) rose to 5.82% from 5.74% the week before july 15.

The report pointed out that the US mortgage interest rate has not changed much recently, but as the volatility of the bond market increases, the situation may soon change. The Fed is widely expected to raise rates by another 3 yards (0.75 percentage points) next week, and other major central banks have turned to aggressive hawkish tones to curb worsening inflationary pressures.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently announced that after seasonal adjustment, Existing-home sales in the United States in June 2022 were seasonally adjusted for 5.12 million units, down 5.4% from May, down for five consecutive months and a new low since June 2020.