In this article CAAS Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT BEIJING, CHINA - NOVEMBER 6: Women wearing Qing Dynasty-style costumes take photos inside the Forbidden City on November 6, 2025, in Beijing, China. Cheng Xin | Getty Images News China's consumer inflation recorded the biggest jump in more than three years, as an extended holiday bolstered spending while deflation in factory-gate...
In this article CAAS Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT BEIJING, CHINA - NOVEMBER 6: Women wearing Qing Dynasty-style costumes take photos inside the Forbidden City on November 6, 2025, in Beijing, China. Cheng Xin | Getty Images News China's consumer inflation recorded the biggest jump in more than three years, as an extended holiday bolstered spending while deflation in factory-gate prices moderated. The consumer price index rose 1.3% in February from a year earlier, China's National Bureau of Statistics data showed Monday, beating economists' forecast for a 0.8% increase in a Reuters poll. The increase followed a 0.2% growth in January, marking the strongest rebound since January 2023, according to LSEG data. Prices rose 1% month on month, above economists' expectations for a 0.5% rise. China's producer price index slumped 0.9% from a year ago, better than economists' expectations of a 1.2% fall, official data showed, moderating from a 1.4% drop in January. In a top economic policy-setting meeting last week, Beijing kept its annual consumer inflation target steady at "around 2%" for 2026. First set in 2025, that's the lowest level in more than two decades as Chinese policymakers sought to bolster domestic demand and rein in aggressive price wars sweeping across many industries. The inflation target acts more as a ceiling than a target to be realized. In 2025, consumer prices were flat overall, while core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.7% as consumer confidence remained soft. Beijing also lowered its GDP growth target this year to a range of 4.5% to 5%, the least ambitious target on record going back to the early 1990s, as officials acknowledged persistent deflationary pressures and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. To bolster domestic spending, Chinese officials dedicated 250 billion yuan ($36.2 billion) in the fiscal budget this year to subsidize a consumer trade-in program — down from 300 billion yuan in 2025 — along wi...
Aluminum rose to the highest in almost four years as escalating hostilities in the Middle East worsened the supply outlook from the region, while copper and other industrial metals fell on falling risk appetite. Aluminum rose as much has 1.6% to $3,499.50 a ton, the highest since April 2022, on the London Metal Exchange, following a gain of almost 10% last week as the war snarled shipments shipmen...
Aluminum rose to the highest in almost four years as escalating hostilities in the Middle East worsened the supply outlook from the region, while copper and other industrial metals fell on falling risk appetite. Aluminum rose as much has 1.6% to $3,499.50 a ton, the highest since April 2022, on the London Metal Exchange, following a gain of almost 10% last week as the war snarled shipments shipments from the Persian Gulf. The region accounts for about 9% of global supply, and traders are bracing for more disruptions. Buyers of the metal in the US are rushing to secure alternative cargoes from Asia after at least two major smelters in the Middle East — one in Qatar and one in Bahrain — were forced to suspend deliveries. Crude oil spiked about 20% on Monday as the war curbed more production, reflecting deepening worries around the duration of the war and its impact on the global economy. Broader financial markets tumbled on Monday as investors avoided risk assets. A “prolonged war will hurt aluminum supplies further,” said Gao Yin, an analyst at Shuohe Asset Management Co. Many people are buying aluminum and selling other industrial metals in the near term, she added. On Sunday, Iran pressed attacks on neighbors, while Israel struck fuel depots in Tehran and threatened the Islamic Republic’s power grid. President Donald Trump warned the US would consider targeting areas that weren’t previously aimed at. The attacks will continue “until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!” he said in a social media post. Aluminum rose 0.7% to $3,4670.50 a ton as of 9:40 a.m. in Shanghai. Copper fell 1.8% to $12,637 a ton and nickel dropped 3.1% to $16,920 a ton.