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Spot gold fell by $5 in the short term and is now reported at $2,704 per ounce.European members of NATO are considering increasing the proportion of military expenditure. On the 12th, several European officials reported that some European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are considering increasing the proportion of national defense expenditure in their gross domestic product (GDP), from the current 2% to 3%.Central Economic Work Conference: Effectively loosen the burden on the grass-roots units, so that cadres who want to be officers and know how to be officers can be officers and get things done. The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 11 to 12. The meeting stressed that it is necessary to strengthen the party's leadership over economic work, persist in doing things first, enhance confidence, face difficulties, and work hard to ensure that the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee are implemented. It is necessary to strengthen positive incentives and stimulate the endogenous motivation of entrepreneurs. Effectively loosen the burden on the grassroots, so that cadres who want to be officers and officers can be officers and do things. Unswervingly punish corruption and maintain a fair and just market environment and a clean and honest business environment. Persist in seeking truth from facts and being pragmatic, and resolutely oppose formalism and bureaucracy that are keen on showing up to the top, not being responsible for the bottom, and not considering actual results. (Xinhua News Agency)

WTI crude oil futures fell below $70/barrel, down 0.43% in the day; Brent crude oil fell 0.43% in the day to $73.05/barrel.Wang Jing, National Endowment Insurance: Opening the market for individual pensions nationwide will usher in a period of historic policy opportunities, and the five departments jointly issued the Notice on the Full Implementation of the Individual Pension System. Wang Jing, head of the market channel department of the national pension insurance, said that after the individual pension is pushed nationwide, it is expected that the market will usher in a historic period of policy opportunities. All kinds of financial institutions will build differentiated and diversified product systems around people's diversified life-cycle pension financial needs, and provide comprehensive services with characteristics and quality, especially for flexible employees and new employment forms, which will further stimulate the whole society's active awareness of pension, accumulate pension financial funds and effectively promote the development of the real economy. (Securities Society)The European Central Bank predicts that inflation will decline in 2025, and the European Central Bank currently predicts that inflation will cool down slightly faster than predicted in September. The bank's latest forecast shows that the average inflation rate in 2024 and 2025 is 2.4% and 2.1% respectively, while the previous forecast is 2.5% and 2.2% respectively. After cutting interest rates by 25 basis points, the European Central Bank said in a statement: "The anti-inflation process is on the right track." The bank said: "Domestic inflation has declined slightly, but it is still at a high level, mainly because wages and prices in some industries are still adapting to the past inflation surge, but there is a great delay." The European Central Bank maintains its inflation forecast of 1.9% in 2026, and predicts that the average inflation rate in 2027 will be 2.1%.

Ceng Gang, Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory: Judging from the economic situation and policy space, it is still possible to lower the RRR and cut interest rates in the future. The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to implement a moderately loose monetary policy. In this regard, Ceng Gang, chief expert and director of Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, said that the tone of "moderately loose" monetary policy is in the same strain as that of Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party. China's monetary policy has been adjusted from "steady" to "moderately loose", aiming at boosting economic growth and alleviating downward pressure through a more active monetary policy, while providing support for key areas and structural adjustment. In response to the expression of "timely RRR cuts and interest rate cuts", Ceng Gang believes that from the current economic situation and policy space, it is still possible to implement RRR cuts in the future, especially in targeted cuts to required reserve ratios, to release long-term liquidity; The possibility of interest rate cuts is also greater, and it is expected that a one-time large-scale interest rate cut will be implemented at the end of this year or early next year. (SSE)Apple's iOS 18.2 integrates ChatGPT or helps the future sales of iPhone 17. Citigroup maintains a "buy" rating. Citibank pointed out that the iOS 18.2 update released by Apple basically meets expectations and predicts that there will be more highlights in future updates. In the detailed analysis, Atif Malik, an analyst at Citigroup, said that some basic functions of Siri in the latest system version have been taken over by ChatGPT, but this did not affect his view on the phased introduction of Apple Intelligence functions. He thought that this strategy would not significantly change the difference between the update cycle of iPhone 16/17 and the previous cycle. Malik maintains a "Buy" rating on Apple and a target price of $255. For the future, Malik is optimistic about the update of iPhone 17, and predicts that Apple will achieve 227 million units, 246 million units and 253 million units in 2024, 2025 and 2026 respectively.Guo Liyan, Institute of Economics, China Macroeconomic Research Institute: It is a long-term and fundamental policy to continuously promote the construction of ultra-large-scale domestic market. The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 11th to 12th. Guo Liyan, deputy director of the Economic Research Institute of China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said in an interview that expanding domestic demand in an all-round way and continuously promoting the construction of super-large-scale domestic market are not just temporary measures to cope with risks and external shocks, but long-term and fundamental measures to promote Chinese modernization. The key is to boost consumption and improve the efficiency of investment, so that effective investment and potential consumption can form a virtuous cycle promotion mechanism, thereby consolidating and enhancing the main role of domestic demand in supporting the national economic cycle, and giving full play to the powerful supporting role of domestic demand for high-quality economic development and higher-level participation in international competition and cooperation. (The country is a through train)