The dollar is really no longer, its position in global foreign exchange reserves is declining, and the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates by 25 basis points!

01. Credit Suisse Bank: The dollar's role in global foreign exchange reserves may continue to decline

Credit Suisse said in a report on the future of the monetary system on the 1 February that the dollar's importance in global foreign exchange reserves "seems likely" to continue to wane.

Analysts at Credit Suisse said there was evidence that the world's central banks were diversifying away from the US dollar, probably mainly to avoid the risk of US sanctions. Analysts pointed out that the US used a monetary weapon to impose severe sanctions on Russia after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated, prompting many countries to seek to wean themselves off the dollar.

Credit Suisse analysts also believe that the dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves has been declining over the past 20 years, and the world is gradually moving towards a more multi-polar monetary system.

02. Kazakhstan plans to close its trade representative office in Russia

The Kazakh government plans to close its trade representative office in Russia, according to a draft resolution released on the Kazakh "Open Legal Documents" portal on the 1st local time.

According to the Kazakh News Agency on the 2nd, the Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration and the State-owned Assets and Privatization Committee of the Ministry of Finance will take relevant measures to implement the above resolution in accordance with the procedures stipulated by law.

The sources also said that the draft resolution is open for public discussion and public comment until February 15.

According to reports, the Kazakh Trade Representative Office in Russia is located in Moscow, the capital of Russia. The agency carries out local work in accordance with the 1992 Agreement on the Establishment of Trade Representative Offices between Kazakhstan and Russia.

03. Intel will cut mid-level to executive compensation

Intel Corp. said Tuesday that it has begun slashing employees and executive compensation.

Last week, Intel Corporation released a lower-than-expected sales forecast due to the company's declining market share and the sluggish PC market.

According to an unauthorized person familiar with the matter, Intel's pay cut this time will start at the middle level, with a 5% cut in the basic salary of middle-level employees, up to the highest salary of CEO Pat Gelsinger, with a 25% cut.

However, lower-level employees, especially those who receive hourly wages, will not have their wages cut.

Intel spokeswoman Addy Burr said in a statement Tuesday that the company's changes are designed to affect only our executive group and will help support investment and the overall workforce.

Intel said last week that the PC market is starting to cool down after several years of growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the company's profit margins are falling sharply.

Chief executive Pat Gelsinger also admitted that Intel had "stumbled" and lost market share to rivals such as AMD.

The anonymous person told Reuters that in addition to a 5% pay cut for mid-level employees, vice president-level employees will receive a 10% pay cut, and company executives other than the CEO will receive a 15% pay cut.

The company also reduced its 401 (k) matching plan from 5% to 2.5% and suspended performance raises and quarterly performance bonuses for employees, the person said.

The anonymous person also said that annual performance bonuses based on Intel's overall financial performance will remain unchanged, but those bonuses have decreased in recent years as the company has lost ground to competitors.

04, the Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point interest rate hike is expected to continue to raise interest rates

The US Federal Reserve raised its target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to between 4.5 per cent and 4.75 per cent, in line with market expectations, for the eighth consecutive rate rise since March.

In a statement released after a two-day regular meeting of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve changed the phrase "inflation remains high" to "inflation moderated but still high", while reiterating its strong focus on inflation risks and expected to continue raising interest rates.

The statement said that recent indicators point to moderate growth in spending and production in the United States, strong employment growth momentum, and low unemployment. Inflation has moderated, but remains high. The situation in Russia and Ukraine has exacerbated global uncertainty. The Federal Reserve is highly concerned about inflation risks. To support the goal of achieving full employment and a longer-term inflation rate of 2%, the Federal Reserve decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to between 4.5% and 4.75%, and expects that such continued increases will be appropriate to form a sufficiently restrictive monetary policy stance. In addition, the Federal Reserve will continue to reduce the size of its balance sheet.

Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell said at a press conference after the regular monetary policy meeting that inflation data over the past three months show that the pace of price growth has slowed, but we still need more evidence to determine that inflation is on a sustained downward trajectory. History strongly warns against premature policy easing. The Fed's focus is not on short-term trends, but on continued changes in broader financial conditions. The current judgment is that the Fed has not taken a sufficiently strict policy stance, so it is appropriate to expect continued rate hikes. At the regular monetary policy meeting in March this year, the Fed will update its assessment of end point interest rates.

The Wall Street Journal said the rate hike marked the second time in a row that the Federal Reserve has slowed the pace of rate hikes. After Powell's speech, investors expected that the Fed's previous forecast of an end point interest rate between 5% and 5.25% could face a reduction if inflation data continued to improve. Bloomberg quoted analysts as saying that Fed officials have started to speak "both sides", while suggesting that further rate hikes are appropriate, they also acknowledged that they will consider the cumulative amount of tightening in future policy decisions. Markets have become dovish about how high interest rates will rise and how long they will remain high.

05. India's growing demand for BMW is evaluating the launch of more electric vehicles

The German automaker's national president, Vikram Pawah, told Reuters that BMW is evaluating the launch of more electric vehicles (EVs) in India.

This is due to the growing demand from luxury car buyers in India.

President Vikram Pawah said that by the end of 2023, we will have 25 electrified products, half of which will be fully electrified.

We are currently evaluating which electric vehicles will be launched in the Indian market.

BMW has now sold three electric vehicles in India.

If supply chain issues are alleviated, electric vehicles could account for more than 10% of BMW's total sales in India by the end of 2023.

Due to the control measures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruptions have affected global automotive production, but the situation appears to be easing.

India is currently a predominantly small, low-cost car market, with luxury models accounting for just 1% of total 3.80 million sales in 2022.

The luxury electric vehicle market in India is smaller and largely untested, but demand is growing.

Tesla disliked the Indian government's high import tax on electric vehicles and decided not to sell their electric vehicles in India for the time being.

Germany's BMW and rival Mercedes-Benz are seeking to capitalize on Tesla's move away from India in an attempt to crack the Indian market for high-end electric vehicles.

Mercedes launched three electric vehicles in India last year, including a locally assembled electric version of its flagship S-Class sedan, and expects electric vehicles to account for 25% of its total sales in the next five years.

According to Vikram Pawah, BMW aims to have at least half of its global sales of BMW vehicles be zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

He expects the popularity of clean energy vehicles in India to accelerate rapidly.

In 2022, BMW's total sales in India increased by about 35 percent to nearly 12,000 vehicles, a record high.

But it still lags behind Mercedes-Benz, which has set a new sales record in India, where sales rose 41 percent in the past year to nearly 16,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

06. Pinterest joins the tech company layoff wave, planning to lay off 150 people

On Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said Pinterest, which had about 4,000 employees as of the third quarter of last year, was laying off 150 people.

Then a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the layoff rumors.

"We are making organizational changes to further enable us to achieve our company's priorities and long-term strategies," the spokesperson said in the statement.

Recently, public technology companies including Google, Microsoft, PayPal and others have announced large-scale layoffs. Pinterest's layoffs this time account for less than 5% of its total workforce.