The headline news that was jointly reported by global financial media last night and this morning mainly included:

Jerome Powell

The new lineup of FOMC voting members for the Federal Reserve in the new year indicates that policy stances are likely to become more polarized between dovish and hawkish.

The composition of the Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee is about to change, while renewed concerns about inflation are making central bank decisions more complicated.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve lowered the benchmark policy interest rate by 25 basis points and hinted that it would only cut rates twice in 2025. Chairman Jerome Powell clearly stated that the central bank is entering a new phase, and future rate cuts may be more gradual, depending on whether inflation decreases.

In addition to the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board and the President of the New York Federal Reserve, the presidents of the 11 regional Federal Reserve Banks will also take turns voting on rate decisions at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

In recent months, two decision-makers have held dissenting votes. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman opposed the decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, favoring a smaller rate reduction. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack supported maintaining the status quo during the December meeting.

Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers of the Bank of Canada and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem.

Bank of Canada meeting summary: The second consecutive large interest rate cut was a difficult decision.

Bank of Canada officials acknowledged that the decision to cut rates by 50 basis points for the second consecutive time was a tough choice, as some decision-makers initially preferred a smaller cut.

Some members of the central bank's management committee suggested that a 25 basis point cut would be the best move, allowing time to assess the impact since the June rate cut, which has already led to increased Consumer and Real Estate activity.

"Some committee members suggested that policy could remain patient until the full effects of prior cuts become clearer," the rate decision review summary from the December 11 meeting showed.

Ultimately, decision-makers decided to lower the benchmark overnight rate by 50 basis points to 3.25%, as they believed that with inflation reaching 2% and economic supply excess, given the weakening growth outlook, monetary policy "no longer needed to maintain a clear restriction."

The picture shows the presidents and CEOs of Nissan, Makoto Uchida, and Honda, Toshihiro Mibe, attending a joint press conference in Tokyo, Japan on March 15, 2024.

Honda and Nissan have officially started merger negotiations to create the world's third-largest auto manufacturer.

Japanese auto manufacturers Nissan and Honda announced on Monday that they have entered formal talks regarding the merger, which will result in becoming the third-largest auto manufacturer by global sales.

At Monday's press conference, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe stated that the two companies need a larger scale to participate in the development of electric vehicles and Asia Vets' new driving technologies. He mentioned that the business integration would bring advantages that are 'impossible to achieve under the current cooperation framework' to both companies.

He stated that the transaction aims to share intelligence and resources, achieve economies of scale and synergy, while protecting both brands.

Both parties will establish a holding company, serving as the parent company of Honda and Nissan listed on the Tokyo Exchange. The larger Honda will nominate most of the Board of Directors members for the merged entity. He mentioned that the merged group is expected to achieve revenue of 30 trillion yen (191.4 billion USD) and operating profit of over 3 trillion yen.

World's richest person in 2024: a review of Elon Musk's year through 7 sets of data.

In the soon-to-end year of 2024, Elon Musk set multiple records.

His businesses took off across the board, with Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink reaching record valuations. The success of these companies also pushed Musk's net worth to exceed 450 billion USD for the first time, 200 billion USD higher than the world's second-richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Meanwhile, Musk used his Cash / Money Market and influence to help Donald Trump win a second presidential term, becoming a heavyweight figure in USA politics himself. As one of Trump's closest advisors, Musk is now preparing to reform the USA government.

Of course, after Musk acquired and restructured the social platform X for 44 billion USD, it seems X's situation has worsened, resulting in advertisers fleeing.

The rebalancing of the NASDAQ 100 Index sees a decline in the weight of Tesla, Meta Platforms, and Broadcom.

The influence of three companies ranked among the top globally in the NASDAQ 100 Index has declined, following a surge in the Technology Sector in 2024 that led to unprecedented levels of these Stocks.

Compiled data shows that in the NASDAQ 100's rebalancing, the weights of three major Technology Stocks—Tesla, Meta, and Broadcom—have decreased, with Tesla's weight dropping from 4.9% last Friday to 3.9%, Broadcom's from 6.3% to 4.4%, and Meta's from 4.9% to 3.3%.

At the same time, the weights of four other technology giants—Apple, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Google's parent company Alphabet—in the NASDAQ 100 have all increased. Among them, Apple's weight rose from 9.2% to 9.8%, and NVIDIA's from 7.9% to 8.4%.

Among the seven stocks mentioned above with weight changes, excluding Broadcom, six belong to the well-known Meg Seven—the technology giants known as the "Seven Sisters," which include Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla.

Wall Street follows the guidance of the Federal Reserve, and major institutions predict a decline in US Treasury yields next year.

Wall Street is responding to information from the Federal Reserve, predicting that even if Trump's trade and tax policies pose risks to the bond market, short-term US Treasury yields will still decline by 2025.

The predictions from strategists are generally in agreement, believing that the 2-year Treasury yield, which is more sensitive to the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy, will decline. They also anticipate that the yield will decrease by at least 0.5 percentage points from its current level in 12 months.

David Kelly and others from the Morgan Asset Management team stated: 'Although investors may be shortsightedly focused on the speed and magnitude of interest rate cuts next year, they should also take a step back and think about the fact that the Federal Reserve will still be on a rate-cutting path in 2025.'