Pulling the Punch: Financial Markets
① Economics outweighed politics as far as the financial markets were concerned in 2017.
② Investors may have taken occasional fright at President Donald Trump's bellicose tweets, the slow progress of Brexit or populism in Europe.
③ But their attention quickly switched back to the main theme of the year: economic growth forecasts were upgraded and inflation remained low.
④ As a result the two potential stockmarket bogeymen—a recession and rapidly rising interest rates—were kept at bay.
⑤ Subdued inflation also meant that government bond markets defied the bears for yet another year with yields staying at low historical levels.
⑥ But politics could bite back in 2018 if tensions rise further between America and North Korea, or between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
⑦ And it is far from clear how markets will cope as central banks continue to withdraw their monetary stimulus.
⑧ But who wants to spend the Christmas holidays thinking about the punchbowl being snatched away?
▍生詞好句
pull the punch: 手下留情
A outweighs B: A 比 B 重要
take fright at sth.: 受到……的驚嚇
bellicose /?b?l?k??s/: adj. 好戰(zhàn)的
populism /?p?pj?l?z(?)m/: n. 民粹主義
bogeyman /?b??ɡ?man/: n. 可怕的人胸梆；妖怪
keep…at bay: 不讓……逼近
subdue /s?b?dju?/: vt. 鎮(zhèn)壓瘪吏；制伏；征服
defy /d??f??/: vt. 阻止恕稠；使……無效
bear: n. 熊市
yield /ji?ld/: n. 收益
stimulus /?st?mj?l?s/: n. 刺激物
punchbowl /?p?n(t)?b??l/: n. 潘趣酒碗
snatch /snat?/: vt. 奪走
