Cable raw materials (rubber) weekly report (4.3-4.7)

1.
Macroeconomic news

1.
The minutes of the March monetary policy meeting released by the Federal Reserve on the 5th show that most Fed officials believe that if the economy meets expectations, the Fed can begin to reduce its balance sheet later this year and will continue to gradually raise interest rates
.
But the minutes also stressed that Fed officials have not yet agreed on the technical details of balance sheet reduction, but stressed that it should be done in a dovish, predictable manner, with relevant information
communicated to the market before any decision is implemented.
Data show that from the end of 2008 to October 2014, the Federal Reserve successively launched three rounds of quantitative easing, which lowered long-term interest rates and stimulated economic growth
by purchasing US Treasury bonds and other institutional bonds.

2.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on the 6th that in the short term, the inflation rate in the euro area is not enough to support the European Central Bank in adjusting monetary policy
.
At present, the economic recovery in the eurozone is obvious, and the risk of deflation is gradually disappearing, but the ECB's policymakers have sent conflicting signals
on the strategy of exiting the stimulus program.
While the current guidance for the bank expects a long pause between the end of the asset purchase program and interest rate hikes, some ECB members have expressed support for accelerating policy normalization
.
The ECB's asset purchase programme is scheduled to end at the end
of 2017.
After the ECB's March press conference, investors raised expectations that the ECB might raise borrowing costs as early as January 2018, but this expectation fell
again after a series of speeches by central bank policymakers reconfirmed that the status quo was maintained.

3.
The Caixin China Service Sector Business Activity Index (Services PMI) released in March was 52.
2, down 0.
4 percentage points from the previous month and the lowest
in six months.
This trend is contrary to
the services PMI released by the Bureau of Statistics.
The PMI index for the services sector released by the Bureau of Statistics was 54.
2, up 1 percentage point
from February.
Zhong Zhengsheng, head of macro research at Caixin think tank Monita, said that the economy remained expanding in March, but the growth rate of manufacturing and services both declined, and the growth rate of new orders and new business slowed, investors need to pay close attention to whether there will be signs of inflection in the second quarter
.